Warfield

Plaintiff Yvonne Warfield (Yvonne), [1] a resident of a residential care facility for the elderly, brought an action against Summerville Senior Living, Inc. dba Summerville at Brookhurst (Summerville) for elder abuse and other claims. Summerville filed a petition to compel arbitration, based on an arbitration agreement Yvonne's husband had signed. The trial court denied the petition and Summerville appeals.

Summerville claims that, even though Yvonne's husband did not hold a power of attorney when he signed the arbitration agreement, he nonetheless had the authority, either as her ostensible agent or as her spouse, to bind her to the agreement. It also claims that Yvonne is estopped to deny the enforceability of the arbitration agreement. We reject Summerville's arguments and affirm.

Yvonne alleged in her complaint that she was born in 1918 and was admitted into the Summerville facility in 2004. She further alleged that the reason she was admitted was because she was suffering from dementia and was no longer able to care for herself. [2] Yvonne also alleged that, although the facility had a dementia care unit, she was not placed in that unit, but was placed in the…