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Gainesville Health Care Center9/18/2003
Appellant seeks review of a non-final order denying its motion to compel arbitration and abate appellee's civil action. We have jurisdiction. Art. V, ยง 4(b)(1), Fla. Const.; Fla. R. App. P. 9.030(b)(1)(B), 9.130(a)(3)(C)(iv). The trial court held that appellant is not entitled to arbitration because the arbitration provision is unconscionable. We conclude that the trial court's determination that the arbitration provision is procedurally unconscionable is erroneous as a matter of law, and that appellee's alternative arguments regarding unenforceability of the arbitration provision are legally without merit. Accordingly, we reverse.
I.
Appellee, as personal representative of the estate of Isabella Brooks, filed a civil damage action against appellant, asserting claims based on negligence, wrongful death and violation of section 400.022, Florida Statutes (sometimes referred to as the nursing home residents' bill of rights). Appellant responded by filing a motion to compel arbitration and abate proceedings. Attached to that motion was a six-page document titled "Admission Contract," which appellant asserted had been executed on Isabella Brooks' behalf by her daughter, Barbara West, pursuant to a power of attorney previously executed by Ms. Brooks. That document includes the following provision:
VI. ARBITRATION
Except as prohibited by applicable law, pursuant to the Federal Arbitration Act, any action, dispute, claim, or controversy of any kind (e.g., whether in contract or in tort, statutory or common law, legal or equitable, or otherwise) now existing or hereafter arising between the parties in any way arising out of, pertaining to or in connection with the provision of healthcare services, any agreement between the parties, the provision of any other goods or services by the Health Care Center or other transactions, contracts or agreements of any kind whatsoever, any past, present, or future incidents, omissions, acts, errors, practices, or occurrence causing injury to either party whereby the other party or its agents, employees or representatives may be liable, in whole or in part, or any other aspect of the past, present, or future relationships between the parties shall be resolved by binding arbitration administered by the National Health Lawyers Association (the "NHLA").
Immediately below this provision is the following:
THE UNDERSIGNED ACKNOWLEDGE THAT EACH OF THEM HAS READ AND UNDERSTOOD THIS CONTRACT, AND THAT EACH OF THEM VOLUNTARILY CONSENTS TO ALL OF ITS TERMS
The signature lines are immediately below this language. In two memoranda opposing appellant's motion to compel arbitration, appellee raised a number of issues, including that the arbitration provision is procedurally and substantively unconscionable.
At the hearing held on appellant's motion to compel arbitration, the parties relied exclusively on the documents executed by Ms. West on her mother's behalf and the depositions of Ms. West and Tammy Miller, the employee of appellant with whom Ms. West dealt. Viewed in a light most favorable to appellee, those depositions establish that Ms. West and her sister (appellee) desired to transfer Ms. Brooks from the nursing home where she was residing to appellant's facility because they were dissatisfied with the care their mother had received at the first facility. Ms. Brooks was admitted to appellant's facility on February 9, 2001. After Ms. Brooks had been admitted to appellant's facility, Ms. West made an appointment to meet with Tammy Miller. That meeting occurred at appellant's facility on March 28, 2001.
The meeting between Ms. West and Ms. Miller took place during the former's l
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