A California appellate court has kicked a negligence lawsuit back to the trial court to reconsider the validity of an arbitration agreement signed by the son of a 93-year-old Atria Senior Living resident who died after mistakenly being served cleaning fluid instead of juice.
Trudy Maxwell, 93, was a resident of Atria Park of San Mateo, San Mateo, CA, and died Aug. 29, 2022, two days after drinking an industrial-strength cleaner that had been poured into a juice pitcher by an Atria employee.
Maxwell’s family filed a wrongful death and negligence lawsuit against Atria Management Co. Atria Park of San Mateo, Atria Senior Living, operator WG Hillsdale SH LP and community Director Jennifer Duenas. The lawsuit also alleged inadequate staffing and training as contributing factors to the incident that led to Maxwell’s death, claiming that policies to cut costs and care were “part of their scheme to profit from vulnerable adults.”
A Superior Court of San Mateo County judge denied Atria’s motion to compel arbitration, ruling that James Maxwell, Trudy Maxwell’s son, was not authorized to sign the arbitration agreement during his mother’s admission to the community because he did not have a durable power of attorney to make healthcare decisions for her. James Maxwell’s sister, Marybeth Maxwell, held the power of attorney for healthcare.
Atria appealed that ruling, arguing that James Maxwell did have the authority to sign the agreement and that Trudy Maxwell’s heirs had been found to arbitrate her wrongful death claims.
In a Sept. 9 decision, the California First Court of Appeals reversed the trial court’s order denying arbitration and remanded the case back to the trial court. The appellate court instructed the trial court to reconsider the validity of the arbitration agreement in light of a California Supreme Court decision holding that agreeing to an optional arbitration agreement is not a healthcare decision.
The appellate court also directed the trial court to determine whether the durable power of attorney in this case was valid and whether James Maxwell had the authority to agree to arbitration despite his sister holding the healthcare power of attorney. The appellate court further noted that the wrongful death claims were not subject to arbitration since Maxwell’s children were not parties to the arbitration agreement.
The case against Atria
Trudy Maxwell received a dementia diagnosis in 2018. Her son signed a residency agreement and related documents, including the optional arbitration agreement, to move her into the Atria community’s memory care unit in 2020.
Maxwell’s children filed a complaint on Sept. 29, 2022, a month after her death from the accidental poisoning, alleging negligence, wrongful death and elder abuse. The lawsuit alleged that Atria had a history of not complying with state safety regulations, as well as a history of neglecting Trudy Maxwell. The suit further alleged that poisoning at senior living communities was “a known industry problem,” pointing to similar poisonings that took place at Atria Walnut Creek in Walnut Creek, CA, just four days before the incident that led to Maxwell’s death.
Atria moved to compel binding arbitration on Oct. 26, 2022. The trial court denied the motion to compel arbitration on June 9, 2023, concluding that James Maxwell did not have the authority to sign the arbitration agreement because he did not have the authority to make healthcare decisions for his mother.
The appellate court ruled that the trial court correctly determined that the wrongful death claims in the case are not subject to arbitration, remanding the case back to the trial court to reconsider the motion to compel arbitration.
Atria had not responded to a request for comment from McKnight’s Senior Living as of the production deadline.
Such incidents have not been limited to Atria. In 2021, a 95-year-old senior living resident died after mistakenly drinking dishwasher liquid at Sunrise of Lenexa in Kansas. Also, in 2017, the Minnesota Department of Health found that Emerald Crest, an Augustana Care community, was responsible for the death of a resident who was left unattended and drank a lethal amount of dishwasher detergent. And in 2015, a jury awarded $5 million to the family of a Michigan senior living resident with dementia who lived at Watermark Retirement Communities’ The Fountains at Franklin who died after ingesting dishwashing detergent.
