Florida Arbitration Law: Wife Verbally OK’s Husband to Sign Papers Is Agency to Sign Arbitration Clause

In contrast to our discussion of Koricic v. Beverly Enters. in which the Nebraska Supreme Court held that a son lacked authority to sign an arbitration agreement on behalf of his mother, a recent trial court in Florida ruled in Christenson, v. The Abbey Rehabilitation and Nursing Center that a husband had apparent authority to sign a nursing home arbitration agreement.

From Florida Arbitration Law.com:

In Christenson, the validity of an arbitration agreement was at issue when a wife was admitted to a nursing home and orally gave her husband an unambiguous, all inclusive general grant of authority to sign “a bunch of papers” on her behalf, without limitation, and created a situation where the people at the nursing home reasonably believed the husband had such authority.

Read more here.

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