SACRAMENTO, Calif., April 27 -- Supreme Court of California issued the following opinion on March 28:
Under California's Health Care Decisions Law (Prob. Code, section 4600 et seq.),1 a principal may appoint a health care agent to make health care decisions should the principal later lack capacity to make them. In this case, a health care agent signed two contracts with a skilled nursing facility. One, with state-dictated terms, secured the principal's admission to the facility. The other made arbitration the exclusive pathway for resolving disputes with the facility. This second contract was optional and had no bearing on whether the principal could access the facility or receive care. The issue before us is whether execution of the secon...