General Application

Garcia v. KND Dev. 52, LLC, No. B301929 (D2d4 Dec. 15, 2020)

Son and Mom signed some documents in connection with Dad’s admission to two Hospitals. They contained arbitration clauses. After Dad died, Mom sued Hospitals for medmal as his successor in interest. Hospitals sought to compel arbitration. Although Dad was a non-signatory, it ran on the theory that Mom and Son were Dad’s agents. The trial court found that the record didn’t support that theory and denied the motion to compel.

Hospitals claim that the agency ruling discriminated against arbitration, and thus was preempted by the FAA under AT&T v. Concepcion. But the ruling was just an ordinary application of generally applicable state agency law, such as would be applied to any contract that purported to bind a non-signatory. The trial court did not apply some special rule tailor-made for arbitration. The ruling was thus consistent with the FAA.

Affirmed.