Harrod

Opinion of the Court by Jenkins, J.

Under California’s Health Care Decisions Law (Prob. Code, § 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 second, separate, and optional contract for arbitration was a health care decision within the health care agent’s authority. It was not, and the facility’s owners and operators may not, therefore, rely on the agent’s execution of that second agreement to compel arbitration of claims arising from the principal’s alleged maltreatment that have been filed in court. We affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeal and remand for further court proceedings.

I. BACKGROUND

The Health Care Decisions Law authorizes competent…