U.S. Supreme Court Declines to Review Challenge to Texas High Court’s Order in Nursing Home Dispute

Yesterday, the Supreme Court of the United States declined to review a challenge to a 2015 Texas Supreme Court ruling which held that Section 74.451 of the Texas Civil Practices and Remedies Code was preempted by the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”). In the case, the relatives of a woman who died in a Texas nursing home after signing an arbitration agreement that failed to comply with the requirements of the Texas Medical Liability Act asked the nation’s high court to examine whether the State’s medical malpractice law constituted an insurance law that was shielded from the FAA.

The issue previously presented to the Texas high court was:

The Federal Arbitration Act preempts state laws which restrict arbitration agreements. The McCarran-Ferguson Act protects state insurance regulations from unintended federal law preemption. Is Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, Section 74.451—which restricts arbitration between healthcare providers and patients—an insurance regulation?

After the Supreme Court of Texas held that the Texas Medical Liability Act was preempted by the FAA, the deceased woman’s family sought review by the U.S. Supreme Court. In a January 11^th order, the U.S. high court denied certiorari in the dispute. You can read more about the case history in Perez v. Fredericksburg Care Co., No. 15-365 in a prior Disputing blog post.

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