Brown Ex Rel. Brown v. Genesis Healthcare

KETCHUM, Justice:

In the three cases now before the Court, we are asked to examine two areas of the law have never directly and comprehensively addressed.

The first area of the law we consider involves Section 2 of the Federal Arbitration Act (“the FAA”). 1 We are asked to consider its preemptive effect on West Virginia’s nursing home laws. These cases involve arbitration clauses buried within nursing home admission agreements. In each ease, a plaintiff alleges that a nursing home negligently caused the death of a nursing home resident. In each case, a representative for the resident had signed…