in the illinois nursing home care act or personal injuries and wrongful death and i have read of medical expenses as well we know that charles courteau was a resident of the nursing home he was admitted to she went to a written contract that was signed by his wife he did not sign it there was also an arbitration agreement that was signed by the wife as well in the court of the loaf we filed a motion to compel arbitration to enforce the arbitration agreement to take us status one spouse for the other the question therefore that was appealed is whether or not to try to court drug correctly dealt with that question and if the outset of course we know that there is another case dealing with  identical contract form the disability court decided i believe just as right off the division of the peterson case versus presidential alternatives and if i could i'd like to just deal with that right off the bat and tell you our position have here is that the argument was not very great in the court below and whether it's called a waiver or forfeiture i think that is the application that we have to give the peterson case not only was it not reasonable oh but there's actually a position taken in the appellate brief the athlete brief here which says just the opposite when the appellate attorney looked at the two different contract which by the way are appended in the reply brief for your convenience when you looked at them he said that there's no other conclusion to draw other than they were meant to be read together and differing interpretation but i also know that waiver in forfeiture are binding on the lawyers but the rule was not binding on the court you can hold us to it but of course if you feel the need to decided on the peterson case your able to do that i don't think you should for this reason we have here today  question of first impression and it's an important one as as families make that decision that very difficult decision to admit a loved one to a nursing home it's not something that is done easily  it's something that oftentimes is done by a child of the resident by a spouse signature on the contracts are often not the resident himself or herself and we will be most likely seen this issue from time to time and again if on the other hand you have the peterson case and you used to apply that analysis here what you're going to have is and guessing a decision that has probably no new presidential value outside of peterson peterson's already been decided which said that the contracts don't refer to each other adequately enough and we have that very well reasoned decision from my court already doing it again just doesn't add anything on the other hand if we enforce the waiver or the forfeiture rule here then what we have is an opportunity to contribute to the body of law that will advance us as nursing home contract an arbitration  below with the issue of whether one spouse in this circumstance has bound the other and both are everything and my phone is brief i think very adequately point out that the case in the issue has been dealt with in the number of other jurisdictions and you see a wide variety of results even alone or in different states we do need to point to florida for example who's decided the case one way or the other and since this is a case of first impression i suspect that you have the opportunity to decide the case on whichever legal basis or analysis you so choose in doing so i'm simply hoping that you will do it consistently rather you look at your parent agency rules agency  rules third party beneficiary rules whichever analysis you choose and then not your to necessarily urge one over the other but do so consistently when you approach the two signatures on these documents and by motion to dismiss we consider all well pled facts is true one of those facts is that he in fact was admitted and did receive the benefits of the nursing home services so we know that ended at least the initial five page contract signature meant something be consistent in there when you then turn to the arbitration agreement your signature is there also it has to mean something it couldn't just be there for no reason at all when i think of of alternative pleading or raising alternative arguments this is done all the time we often think that it is you can read this position but if not it's the other and i think that's exactly what she was doing when she said here is my husband and like to put him in the nursing home she signs these documents and as a matter of fact your honor in the nursing home contract itself she's listed  a guardian slash responsible party i think that's what you're saying that she have to be a legal guardian or legal power of attorney or overturn for health care or can she simply be a responsible party who says i have a she's only binding herself clearly your signature in something right my opponent has taken the alternative position is that she was not signing as a responsible party or as a representative capacity that makes no sense either she is the responsible party with the authority or of your parent authority to put her husband in the nursing home or she has authority to sign it for herself or her individual way remember there are essentially three types of claims presented here one under the nursing home care act alone soley to the resident survival act allows them to survive is that the other claims or the wrongful death where she is the real party in interest and also the family expense that where she is the real party in interest to she has a signature there saying i'll arbitrate or real arbitrator somebody will so it's either she has the authority to bahrain her husband as well or she has the authority to bind her but don't approach the piece at least a very if you know how to approach the case in a way that her signature means nothing that she has no authority to bind herself or her husband that just doesn't make sense especially when we see the actual results of what your signature meant on the first five just she did have authority to do something she had authority to put her husband in the nursing home to commit the nursing home to because we know that just being a spouse doesn't give her the actual authority to do that and i don't acknowledge that but i think to answer your question how does she have authority i think you have to look at the circumstantial evidence which i don't think the trial court below th she is a loved one there is a medical need she is trying to fulfill that medical need for her husband and she's making arrangements to do so if i simply brought a friend of mine to the nursing home and said please admit him i don't think anybody would say i might have a permanent authority to do that for a friend or a neighbor but when it's a family situation and when there's a present medical need and when the one in need actually those services that are given pursuant to the contract i think there's plenty of evidence there circumstantial but plenty of evidence to say there was a thorny to get the ball rolling in to put him in there and that was my disappointment with the trial or i think the truck court identified the correct point of law but simply didn't go far enough to apply the trial court only said just the marital relationship alone doesn't give us an agency or her agency i have no qualms with that but there is a little more to the rule we can still look at circumstantial evidence to see a authority or apparent authority or the ratification evidence of ratification or no evidence of agency that's where we disagree and that's what we want to bring to your attention we also urged a third party beneficiary analysis maybe it makes sense to folks maybe a dozen other course they've used the other courts have rejected it but i think it makes some benefit of some some sense here as well wife brings her husband in he's obviously needed nursing home care she signs the contract for  whose benefit for his he's obviously you and the beneficiary so i know my remarks are brief and i'm happy to leave them that way again i just want to encourage you folks as you consider the consider issue to be consistent with those two signatures two documents two signatures the signature on the main contractor he was admitted not something we think it has to be something on the arbitration agreement as well thank you for the opportunity  i see this contract which is required by the owners in home care act to be a separate doctor and arbitration agreement has to be self has to be by statute i see it is just one of those options which you can you choose or not to how do you know it was and where we don't on this record what i am looking at is was it ratified by action by accepting the nursing home here or was it was the evidence of agency or parent agency by the wife signing it as i don't want to misquote her but our form listed her as resident representative in other words a nursing home i think has some entitle me to know that when these documents are being pushed across the table and sign that the person on the other end of them has some authority some representative can pass because i think thank you i  that the fed is arguing that this court can decide or needs to decide this case because of its presidential value on and i suppose this court could  whether the husband ratified somehow ratified this agreement but i hate having trouble wrapping my mind around how are you know you really can get to the issue of agency all the parties latest event this patient all know what they were signing and knew what what would be subject of attrition and obviously i think it's axiomatic that you know if there's the the defendant argues that you know that the wife here is you know is a responsible party that she's that her signature really has to mean something on these particular of tracks if you decide the peterson case doesn't apply here it's you know the nursing home in this particular case you have could have made sure that the husband was present when the  those contracts were signed at the very reason so that he could have been just by being present possibly ratified the agreements maybe that wasn't wouldn't be enough but at the very least maybe gotten a power of attorney health care from but i just wanted to very briefly leave you with this last thought of course we're asking back you reverse the order of the traffic court denying the nursing homes motions to compel arbitration however if you're implying soon a further out court's decision i santal evidence supporting our position specifically regarding apparent agency and ratification so we were there for a request that this course decision reflects that the decision was based solely on the pleadings and not for know for sure the answer to your question i would assume that they would be allowed still to to enter into the nursing home i don't think that this is any sort of an if you can contract where it's a do or die but you know again power of attorney or some sort of legal document however i do think that they should you know try as as much as they can to get that information from the president wherever possible and unfortunately at this point  because there's a spouse the relationship that person i don't think it's only the spousal relationship i think it's also the fact that there may be a medical need i can't think of very many cases where the nursing home resident actually wants to be there i think the majority of people would probably prefer to be a home with loved ones but unfortunately that's not always the case it's not always available sometimes being placed in their same home this a last resort for all of the parties that they can't actually express it in that case no one would ever be able to be placed into a nursing home if that individual was incapacitated you know if they had already previously executed a power of attorney what would happen they'd be left to suffer at home alone on through your case they are beginning it might be a little bit more of an emergency situation that would allow so you know under the circumstances i would i believe that