A federal court in Ohio refused to enforce a nursing home arbitration agreement without evidence that the agreement was validly assigned to entities which subsequently acquired ownership of the facility.

In Scibana v. Aspen Woodside Village, LLC, No. 1:07CV 2443, 2007 WL 4510261 (N.D. Ohio, Dec. 18, 2007), John Kovach was killed by the allegedly intentional act of a staff member at Woodside Village. The Executrix of his estate, Juanita Scibana filed claims against numerous defendant entities related to Woodside Village. These entities can be grouped into the Horizon Bay defendants and the Aspen Defendants.

This Court rejected Horizon Bay's argument that all of Scibana's claims were subject to an arbitration provision in the residency agreement signed by Aspen Retirement Corporation and Scibana, as Kovach's representative.

The Court noted that "[i]t is virtually impossible to untangle the web of corporate entities involved in this case." Aspen Retirement Corporation was sold to Woodside, part of the Horizon Bay defendants, but did not assign the residency agreement to Woodside. Rather, the rights were assigned by Aspen Woodside Village. However, "it is ambiguous at best" if Aspen Woodside Village had authority to assign the residency agreement.

Moreover, the Aspen defendants themselves argued that the only proper entity subject to Scibana's claims was Aspen Retirement Management Company, LLC, because they had originally hired the nurse aide suspected of injuring Kovach.

Horizon Bay, as the party seeking to enforce the arbitration agreement in, is not named in the arbitration agreement. Accordingly, the Court held that Scibana cannot be compelled to arbitrate its claims against Horizon Bay and the Court denied Horizon Bay's motion to stay proceedings pending arbitration.