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The Mississippi Court of Appeals held that a nursing home resident entered into a valid arbitration agreement even though she failed to initial that page of the admission contract because there was no evidence that her failure to initial the arbitration agreement was intentional.
In Community Care Center of Vicksburg, LLC v. Mason, No. 2006-CA-00599-COA, 2007 WL 2917585 (Miss. Ct. App. Oct. 9, 2007), Mason admitted herself into a nursing home run by Community Care Center of Vicksburg (Vicksburg). During the admission process, she signed an admission contract containing an arbitration agreement, but she did not initial the page containing the arbitration agreement.
After being attacked by another nursing home resident, Mason sued Vicksburg for negligence. In response, Vicksburg moved to compel arbitration pursuant to the admission contract. The trial court denied the motion.
On appeal, Mason argued that there was no valid arbitration agreement because she did not initial that page of the admission contract. In rejecting this argument, the Court explained that there was no evidence that Mason expressly rejected the arbitration agreement, thus distinguishing the case from Bedford Care Center-Monroe Hall LLC v. Lewis, 923 So.2d 998 (Miss. 2006) in which the conservator made an express decision not to sign an arbitration agreement.
Moreover, as the Court noted, there was a conspicuous reference to the arbitration agreement right above the line where Mason placed her signature. Since there was no evidence that Mason’s failure to initial the arbitration agreement was intentional, the Court found that Mason agreed to arbitrate by signing the admission contract.
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