Carter v. SSC Odin Operating Company, LLC

State: Illinois

Court: 5th District Appellate

Docket No: 5-07-0392 Rel

Case Date: 04/04/2008

Preview:NO. 5-07-0392
N O T IC E Decisio n filed 04/04/08. The text of

IN THE APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS

this dec ision m ay b e changed or corrected prior to the filing of a P e t i ti o n for Re hea ring or th e

FIFTH DISTRICT ________________________________________________________________________ SUE CARTER, Special Administrator of the Estate of Joyce Gott, Deceased, ) Appeal from the ) Circuit Court of ) Marion County. Plaintiff-Appellee, ) ) v. ) No. 06-L-75 ) SSC ODIN OPERATING COMPANY, LLC, ) d/b/a Odin Healthcare Center, ) Honorable ) David L. Sauer, Defendant-Appellant. ) Judge, presiding. ________________________________________________________________________ JUSTICE SPOMER delivered the opinion of the court: The defendant, SSC Odin Operating Company, LLC, doing business as Odin Healthcare Center, appeals an order of the circuit court of Marion County denying the defendant's motion to compel arbitration in the present lawsuit brought by the plaintiff, Sue Carter, as the special administrator of the estate of Joyce Gott, deceased. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the order of the circuit court. BACKGROUND The facts necessary to our disposition of this appeal are undisputed by the parties and are as follows. The plaintiff, Sue Carter, is the special administrator of the estate of Joyce Gott, deceased. Joyce was a resident of the defendant's facility, Odin Healthcare Center (Odin), in Odin, Illinois, from May 20, 2005, until July 29, 2005, and again from January 12, 2006, until her death on January 31, 2006. At the outset of Joyce's first stay at Odin, the plaintiff, acting not on her own behalf, but as Joyce's legal representative, executed a written "Health Care Arbitration Agreement" with the defendant; at the outset of Joyce's second stay 1

disposition of the same.

at Odin, Joyce executed a second written "Health Care Arbitration Agreement" with the defendant, the terms of which are identical to those of the first agreement. In pertinent part, the two "Health Care Arbitration Agreements" (the agreements) require that all disputes between Joyce and the defendant related to Joyce's care at Odin be submitted to binding arbitration. By their own terms, however, the agreements do not apply "to any dispute where the amount in controversy is less than two hundred thousand ($200,000.00) dollars." Within the agreements, Joyce and the defendant expressly agree that the agreements will be governed by the Federal Arbitration Act (9 U.S.C.

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