An Illinois appellate court has found an assisted living community’s arbitration agreement so one-sided that it called it “unconscionable” and unenforceable.
The assessment came in the case of resident Joan Hwang, 90, who reportedly fractured her pelvis in 2022 after she was hit by a door opened by an employee and fell.
Hwang filed suit against Pathway La Grange Property Owner, doing business as Aspired Living of La Grange, in 2023, alleging negligence and premises liability. Aspired is an assisted living and memory care community in La Grange, IL, owned by Senior Lifestyle.
In her lawsuit, Hwang argued that the terms of the arbitration agreement — which she signed in 2022 when she moved into the community — placed her at a disadvantage and were one-sided in favor of Aspired.
Aspired asked the Circuit Court of Cook County to dismiss the case based on the fact that Hwang had signed an arbitration document in her residential contract.
A Cook County Circuit Court judge, however, denied the motion to dismiss and compel arbitration, finding that the arbitration agreement “strongly benefits [Aspired] at the expense of the resident.” The court further criticized the 75-page residence and service agreement, which had 16 attachments, including an arbitration agreement with “mostly dense and confusing language.”
The trial court found that the arbitration agreement “highlighted the lack of bargaining power” Hwang had, since she would not have been allowed to move in if she had not signed the agreement. Also, the court said, the community had presented Hwang with no “realistic opportunity” to consult an attorney before signing the agreement.
In an Oct. 11 opinion, the three-judge panel of the First District Appellate Court of Illinois affirmed the Cook County Circuit Court’s decision. The appellate court concluded that “the one-sided nature of the arbitration obligation, the confidentiality clause, the provision prohibiting punitive damages, the provision capping damages at $250,000, and Hwang’s lack of bargaining power when signing the agreement” rendered it “unconscionable” and, therefore, unenforceable.
Aspired and Senior Lifestyle had not responded to requests for comment from McKnight’s Senior Living by the production deadline.
