SOVEREIGN HEALTHCARE OF TAMPA, LLC, A/K/A SOVEREIGN HEALTHCARE OF TAMPA, LLC, D/B/A SOVEREIGN HEALTHCARE OF TAMPA (AS TO BAYSHORE POINTE NURSING & REHAB CENTER), APPELLANT,
v.
THE ESTATE OF FLORINDA HUERTA, BY AND THROUGH DENNIS HUERTA, PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE, APPELLEE

Fla. 2d DCA | 2009-05-22
No. 2D08-4352
WHATLEY and KELLY, JJ„ Concur.
14 So. 3d 1033 Florida District Court of Appeal, Second District (2009) Positive Treatment
Cited by 10 cases

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Synopsis

Sovereign Healthcare appeals the trial court's denial of its motion to compel arbitration in a negligence and wrongful death action. The court reversed, holding that a durable power of attorney with broad general grant language and specific authorization for hospitalization-related decisions gave the attorney-in-fact sufficient authority to bind the principal to an arbitration clause in nursing home admission documents.


Holding

The court held that the durable power of attorney, containing both a broad catch-all provision granting general authority and specific grants authorizing consent to hospitalization and signing of releases for hospitalization, gave the attorney-in-fact sufficient authority to enter into the arbitration clause. The prior case Estate of McKibbin does not control where the POA contains such broad and unambiguous general authority language.


Headnotes

[1] A durable power of attorney may grant an attorney-in-fact the authority to waive the principal's right to a jury trial and agree to arbitration.

[2] The controlling precedent regarding the authority of an attorney-in-fact to enter into an arbitration agreement is limited to cases where the power of attorney is demonst…

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Key Quotes

“The McKibbin case is controlling only to the extent that it is possible to determine from the court's opinion that the power of attorney at issue in that case was similar to the POA held by [the attorney-in-fact].”

Establishes the limited scope of the McKibbin precedent and the standard for when it applies to subsequent cases involving powers of attorney and arbitration authority.

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Facts & Procedural History

Florinda Huerta executed a durable power of attorney in 2001 naming her daughter-in-law as attorney-in-fact. In May 2006, Ms. Huerta entered a nursing…

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Opinion of the Court
DAVIS, Judge.

DAVIS, Judge.

Sovereign Healthcare of Tampa, LLC (Sovereign), appeals the trial court’s order denying its motion to compel arbitration in the action for negligence, wrongful death, and breach of fiduciary duty brought against Sovereign by the Estate of Florin-da Huerta. We reverse.

On July 21, 2001, Florinda Huerta executed a durable power of attorney (POA) appointing her daughter-in-law as her at-tomey-in-fact. On May 13, 2006, Ms. Huerta entered a nursing home operated by Sovereign. At that time, Ms. Huerta’s daughter-in-law signed the necessary admission documents, which included an arbitration provision. Ms. Huerta died following her stay at the Sovereign facility, and the personal representative of her estate, Dennis Huerta, brought suit against Sovereign. Sovereign sought to compel arbitration based on the arbitration clause in the admission agreement. Following a hearing on the motion, the trial court entered an order, denying the motion and specifically finding that the POA held by Ms. Huerta’s daughter-in-law was insuffi-’ cient to authorize her to waive Ms. Huerta’s right to a jury trial and agree to arbitration. In so ruling, the trial court acknowledged that the issue of whether a POA is sufficient to grant an attorney-in-fact the authority to waive the right to a jury trial has not yet been fully resolved by the court but concluded that this court’s opinion in Estate of McKibbin v. Alterra Health Care Corp. (In re Estate of McKibbin), 977 So.2d 612 (Fla. 2d DCA), review denied, 987 So.2d 79 (Fla.2008), required that Sovereign’s motion to compel arbitration be denied. This was error.

Without reciting the language of the POA at issue in that case, this court in McKibbin concluded that “[njothing in that power of attorney, however, gave Ms. McKibbin’s son the legal authority to enter into an arbitration agreement on behalf of his mother.” 977 So.2d at 613 (emphasis added). Based on this conclusion, this court decided that the trial court erred in granting the nursing home’s motion to compel arbitration. Id.

This court addressed the limitations to the application of McKibbin in Jaylene, Inc. v. Moots, 995 So.2d 566, 570 (Fla. 2d DCA 2008), by stating, “The McKibbin case is controlling only to the extent that it is possible to determine from the court’s opinion that the power of attorney at issue in that case was similar to the POA held by [the attorney-in-fact].” This court further concluded that a trial court correctly compels the enforcement of arbitration provisions where a POA either makes a specific grant of such authority or “unambiguously makes a broad, general grant of authority to the attorney-in-fact.” Id.

Whether a POA contains a provision that constitutes a sufficiently broad and unambiguous grant of general authority is a matter that requires examination of the language of any catch-all provision contained in a POA, as well as of the relationship of that language to the type or types of interests over which an attorney-in-fact is specifically granted authority within the POA. See Carrington Place of St. Pete, LLC v. Estate of Milo (In re Estate of Milo), — So.3d-(Fla. 2d DCA 2009) (concluding that the trial court properly denied a motion to compel arbitration where there was no specific grant of authority and the catch-all provision of the POA did not contain a sufficiently broad and unambiguous grant of authority because the POA appeared to otherwise only grant specific authority related to property interests).

*1035In light of Jaylene, our review of the language of the catch-all provision of the instant POA indicates that it sets forth a broad and unambiguous grant of authority to Ms. Huerta’s daughter-in-law. Furthermore, the authority granted by the other provisions of the POA include grants of authority to consent to hospitalization and “to sign any and all releases or consent required” to effectuate such hospitalization. Accordingly, we conclude that McKibbin does not control and that the trial court erred in concluding that the POA executed by Ms. Huerta did not grant her attorney-in-fact the authority to enter into the arbitration clause of the nursing home admissions agreement. We therefore reverse the order denying the motion and remand for the entry of an order staying the action and compelling arbitration.

Reversed and remanded.

WHATLEY and KELLY, JJ„ Concur.


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  • Laizure v. Avante AT Leesburg, Inc., 44 So. 3d 1254 (Fla. 5th DCA 2010)
    …g., ManorCare Health Servs., Inc. v. Stiehl, 22 So. 3d 96 (Fla. 2d DCA 2009); Carrington Place of St. Pete, LLC v. Estate of Milo ex rel. Brito, 19 So. 3d 340 (Fla. 2d DCA 2009); Sovereign Healthcare of Tampa, LLC v. Estate of Huerta ex rel. Huerta, 14 So. 3d 1033 (Fla. 2d DCA 2009); Shotts v. OP Winter Haven, Inc., 988 So. 2d 639 (Fla. 2d DCA 2008); Estate of Orlanis ex rel. Marks v. Oakwood Terrace Skilled Nursing & Rehab. Ctr., 971 So. 2d 811 (Fla. 3d DCA 2007); Extendicare Health Servs., Inc. v. Estate of…
  • …CA 2009) (concluding that a DPOA was “sufficiently broad” to confer authority on attorney-in-fact to bind principal to arbitration provision in nursing home admissions contract); Sovereign Healthcare of Tampa, LLC v. Estate of Huerta ex rel. Huerta, 14 So. 3d 1033 (Fla. 2d DCA 2009) (same); Five Points Health Care, Ltd. v. Mallory, 998 So. 2d 1180 (Fla. 1st DCA 2008) (same); Jaylene, Inc. v. Moots, 995 So. 2d 566, 570 (Fla. 2d DCA 2008), rev. denied, 995 So. 2d 566 (Fla. 2d DCA 2008) (holding that a “broad, g…
  • The Est. OF Nettie Irons v. Arcadia Healthcare, L.C., 66 So. 3d 396 (Fla. 2d DCA 2011)
    …s behalf, a trial court is incorrect to grant a nursing home’s motion to compel arbitration based on an admission agreement entered into by the attorney-in-fact.” Carrington, 19 So. 3d at 341. Sovereign Healthcare of Tampa, LLC v. Estate of Huerta, 14 So. 3d 1033 (Fla. 2d DCA 2009), articulated our two-prong analysis of a power of attorney. A power of attorney may contain a “catchall” statement describing broadly the authority granted to the attorney in fact, it may grant specific powers, or it may do both.…

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