Hutcheson

This case turns on whether an attorney-in-fact who admitted her principal to a residential care facility for the elderly made a "health care" decision. If she did, as the trial court found, she acted outside the scope of her authority under the power of attorney, and the admission agreement she signed, and its arbitration clause this appeal seeks to enforce, are void.

To answer this question, we must reconcile two statutes, the Power of Attorney Law (Prob. Code, § 4000 et seq. (PAL)), and the Health Care Decisions Law (Prob. Code, § 4600 et seq. (HCDL)), in light of the care rendered by a residential care facility for the elderly (Health & Saf. Code, § 1569 et seq. ), and parse the authority of two of the principal's relatives, one holding a power of attorney under the PAL and one holding a power of attorney under the HCDL.

On these facts we conclude admission of decedent to the residential care center for the elderly was a health care decision and the attorney-in-fact who admitted her, acting under the PAL, was not authorized to make health care decisions on behalf of the principal.

As a result of this conclusion, we affirm the trial court's denial of a motion by the…