On December 28, 2021, the plaintiff was admitted to Autumn Care of Cornelius (“Autumn Care”), a nursing facility operated by the defendants, following a health incident. The plaintiff remained a resident of the defendants’ facility until March 18, 2022. During her time at Autumn Care, the plaintiff alleged she sustained injuries because of the defendants’ practices at Autumn Care, and on June 2, 2022, the plaintiff filed an action against the defendants for negligence, negligence per se, and punitive damages. The defendants moved to enforce an alleged arbitration agreement concerning the plaintiff’s nursing home negligence claim.
The plaintiff asserted that she did not remember signing any paperwork upon her admission to Autumn Care in 2021 and that the initials on the documents were not her signature. In order to support this contention, the plaintiff provided a power of attorney from 2020 containing her initials as well as an affidavit from her daughter attesting that the initials on the admissions documents were not her mother’s. Additionally, the plaintiff was previously admitted to Autumn Care in 2019, and the record shows she signed the admission paperwork with her full name rather than with initials like those present on the 2021 admission packet. The defendants stated that of the people they spoke with, no personnel at the facility at the time of the plaintiff’s admission had “personal recall of reviewing the paperwork” with the plaintiff.
The trial court denied the defendants’ motion to enforce arbitration, and the defendants appealed.
The Court of Appeals of North Carolina stated in its December 5, 2023 opinion: “Here, the trial court concluded that the arbitration agreement did not contain an electronic signature attributable to an act of plaintiff. The court found that there were “no witnesses” to plaintiff’s alleged initials, there was no other extrinsic evidence supporting the initials on the agreement belonged to plaintiff, plaintiff’s initials on a previously executed power of attorney did not look like the initials on the arbitration agreement, and plaintiff rebutted “any presumption in favor” of the initials being attributed to plaintiff. Each of the findings of fact made by the trial court is supported by competent evidence and is thus binding and conclusive on appeal.
Defendants contend that these findings do not support the conclusion because the signed agreement is prima facie evidence of a valid agreement, and the note on plaintiff’s record indicating she signed in person and the evidence of their routine business practices both support that plaintiff signed the arbitration agreement.
These arguments which defendants attempt to pose as “questions of first impression” are nothing more than an attempt to ask this Court to reweigh the evidence and make different findings of fact than the trial court; this we will not and in fact cannot do under our binding precedent. This argument is not effective on appeal because under our case law, a trial court’s findings are binding when supported by competent evidence even if there is evidence which could support contrary findings. See Gay, 271 N.C. App. at 5. Accordingly, these findings are conclusive and support the trial court’s conclusion that the electronic signature is not attributable to an act of plaintiff.”
Source Detroi v. Saber Healthcare Holdings, LLC, No. COA23-465.
If you or a loved one suffered injuries (or worse) while a resident of a nursing home in North Carolina or in another U.S. state due to a nursing home fall, nursing home neglect, nursing home negligence, nursing home abuse, nursing home under-staffing, or the nursing home failing to properly care for a vulnerable adult, you should promptly find a nursing home claim lawyer in your state who may investigate your nursing home claim for you and file a nursing home claim on your behalf or on behalf of your loved one, if appropriate.
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