GGNSC Stanford, LLC v. Rowe

388 S.W.3d 117, 2012 WL 4208924, 2012 Ky. App. LEXIS 177
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedSeptember 21, 2012
DocketNo. 2010-CA-002330-MR
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 388 S.W.3d 117 (GGNSC Stanford, LLC v. Rowe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
GGNSC Stanford, LLC v. Rowe, 388 S.W.3d 117, 2012 WL 4208924, 2012 Ky. App. LEXIS 177 (Ky. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

OPINION

ACREE, Chief Judge:

The primary question on appeal is whether the purported attorney-in-fact of an incompetent adult, ostensibly appointed by the incompetent person’s parents, had actual or apparent authority to enter into an arbitration agreement on her behalf. If not, the question becomes whether the incompetent- adult’s estate can be estopped from arguing the arbitration agreement was invalid. Because we conclude that no person possessed actual or apparent authority to contractually bind the incompetent adult and that her estate cannot be estopped from arguing the actions of the purported attorney-in-fact were ineffectual, we affirm the order of the circuit court denying the appellants’ motion to dismiss.1

I. Facts and procedure

Deborah Rowe was born to Clara LaVon Rowe and William Henry Rowe in the mid-1950s.2 She was mentally incompetent from birth, and her parents dutifully cared and provided for Deborah well into her adulthood. They never obtained an order of guardianship.

On October 24, 2001, Clara and William executed a document entitled “Power of Attorney,” by which they purported to appoint Nancy Meadows Deborah’s attorney-in-fact. The document provided as follows:

We, CLARA LAVON and WILLIAM HENRY ROWE, parents and guardians of, DEBORAH SUE ROWE, appoint NANCY MEADOWS as the attorney-in-fact in her name and stead to transact any and all business on behalf of our mentally handicapped daughter including, but not limited to, deposit and withdrawal of any funds from her bank account or other depository, endorsement of any commercial papers, voting of any proxy or proxies, execution of any legal [121]*121documents necessary to encumber, sell, transfer or pass title to any real or personal property in which she owns an interest, and to transact any and all business from her and on her behalf. We give to each and every such act done by her attorney the same force and effect as if done in her person and absolve all persons dealing with the attorney-in-fact from any liability for her acts as such. This power is not revoked or affected by her subsequent incapacity or disability. We request our attorney-in-fact be appointed her fiduciary if we are determined to be incompetent or disabled.

Nancy began overseeing Deborah’s affairs and decided in 2007 that the best place for Deborah to live would be a nursing home. Nancy chose Golden LivingCenter in Stanford, Kentucky, where Deborah was admitted. Nancy signed Deborah’s admission papers, including an arbitration agreement, as “PoA.” She presented a copy of the power of attorney document to Golden LivingCenter’s director of admissions.

After nearly two years at Golden Liv-ingCenter, Deborah died on February 17, 2009. Her brothers, Robert Rowe and Richard Rowe, as co-administrators of her estate, brought a wrongful death action in the Lincoln Circuit Court against the nursing home, the nursing home administrator, various corporate entities, and five “John Does,” alleging the defendants had been negligent in causing Deborah’s death and demanding compensatory and punitive damages.3

The defendants filed simultaneously an answer and a motion to dismiss asserting the arbitration agreement precluded the circuit court’s adjudication of the dispute. In a forty-two page response, the Rowes insisted no valid, enforceable arbitration agreement existed and raised a number of legal arguments in support of that position; among those arguments was the contention that Nancy lacked authority to enter into the arbitration agreement on Deborah’s behalf. The circuit court agreed and ruled in favor of Deborah’s estate. The defendants filed a Kentucky Rule of Civil Procedure (CR) 59 motion in which they argued for the first time that the estate should be estopped from denying the validity of the arbitration agreement. That motion was likewise denied, and this appeal followed.

II. Arguments on appeal

Golden LivingCenter presents three alternative bases for reversing the circuit court’s determination that the arbitration agreement was invalid: (1) that Nancy had actual authority to sign the arbitration agreement on Deborah’s behalf; (2) that Nancy had apparent authority to sign; and (8) that the estate should be estopped from denying the validity of the agreement. We will address each argument in turn.

III. Standard of review

The party who raises an arbitration agreement as a bar to court proceedings bears the burden of showing a valid arbitration agreement exists. Mt. Holly Nursing Center v. Crowdus, 281 S.W.3d 809, 813 (Ky.App.2008). Ordinary contract principles govern the validity of an arbitration agreement. Id. (citing KRS 417.050).

The matters raised on appeal are entirely questions of law and equity, as Golden LivingCenter has raised no dispute with the circuit court’s findings of fact. Consequently, our review is de novo. Cinelli v. Ward, 997 S.W.2d 474, 476 (Ky.App.1998) (citation omitted).

IV. Agency

[122]*122Because Golden LivingCenter contends Nancy possessed actual or apparent authority to. act on Deborah’s behalf, or perhaps - on behalf of Deborah’s parents, our analysis must begin with a discussion of how Nancy might have obtained such authority.

[A]n agency is a contract either express or- implied, by which one of the parties confides to the other the management of some business to be transacted in his name, or on his account, by which the other assumes to do the business, and to render an account of it. The agent is a substitute or representative of his principal and derives his authority from him.

Stewart v. Kentucky Paving Co., Inc., 557 S.W.2d 435, 437 (Ky.App.1977) (citing City of Covington v. Reynolds, 240 Ky. 86, 41 S.W.2d 664 (1931)).

A. Actual authority

Golden LivingCenter first contends Nancy had actual authority to form contractual relationships on behalf of Deborah, as impliedly granted by the “Power of Attorney” document. “Implied authority is actual authority circumstantially proven which the principal actually intended the agent to possess and includes such powers as are practically necessary to carry out the duties actually delegated.” Mill Street Church of Christ v. Hogan, 785 S.W.2d 263, 267 (Ky.App.1990) (citing Estell v. Barrickman, 571 S.W.2d 650 (Ky.App.1978), overruled on other grounds).

The argument goes, more or less, like this: Deborah’s parents had authority to act on her behalf, their authority was dele-gable, and Clara and William Rowe properly delegated that authority to Nancy.4

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Bluebook (online)
388 S.W.3d 117, 2012 WL 4208924, 2012 Ky. App. LEXIS 177, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ggnsc-stanford-llc-v-rowe-kyctapp-2012.