Owens v. Nexion Health at Gilmer, Inc., 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22522 (D. Tex. 2007)

Plaintiffs sued for negligence and nursing home moved to compel arbitration. Plaintiffs argued that the agreement could not be enforced because it was a pre-injury agreement subject to AHLA rules and is invalid in light of the AHLA’s revised ruled. The court found otherwise. “[T]he AHLA rules provide that “[i]n limiting the circumstances under which the Service will administer the arbitration of a consumer health care liability claim, the Service does not intend to affect the enforceability of an agreement to apply the rules — only that the Service will not administer the arbitration.” Dkt. No. 4, Ex. B at § 1.01 (emphasis added). Further, the AHLA rules specifically provide that the AHLA Dispute Resolution Service will administer a consumer health care liability claim if “a judge orders that the Service administer an arbitration under the terms of a pre-injury arbitration agreement.” Therefore, this Court may enforce the Arbitration Agreement as written.” Arbitration was compelled. Decided: March 19, 2007.