Day on Torts
Where a nursing facility could not authenticate the decedent’s signature on an arbitration agreement, denial of the facility’s motion to compel arbitration was affirmed.
In Niter-Martin v. Methodist Healthcare-Memphis Hospitals d/b/a Methodist University Hospital, No. W2024-01193-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Nov. 4, 2026), the plaintiff filed claims for negligent care and wrongful death against defendant nursing facility related to the facility’s care of the plaintiff’s mother, who passed away six days after the complaint was filed. The defendant facility filed a motion to compel arbitration, and it attached an arbitration agreement allegedly signed by the decedent to the motion.
In response to the motion to compel arbitration, the plaintiff argued that the facility could not authenticate the arbitration agreement. The trial court agreed and denied the motion, and the Court of Appeals affirmed.
“As a general rule, the execution or authenticity of a private writing must be established before it may be admitted in evidence.” (internal citation and quotation omitted). Further, “[t]he burden of authentication falls to the party seeking to admit the document into evidence.” (internal citation omitted).
The plaintiff argued that the facility failed to authenticate the arbitration agreement for several reasons: 1) the facility’s representative testified at his deposition that he could not verify that the decedent signed the agreement, 2) the decedent had passed away and could not authenticate the agreement, 3) the signature on the agreement included a misspelled version of the decedent’s name, 4) there was no notary or witness to the agreement, and 5) there was no date next to the decedent’s purported signature. The facility admitted that its representative could not personally remember the execution of this agreement, and instead focused on his testimony about facility procedures.
Based on the evidence presented and the fact that the facility had the burden of proof on this issue, the Court of Appeals upheld the ruling that the facility failed to present sufficient evidence to authenticate the agreement. The Court of Appeals thus affirmed the denial of the motion to compel arbitration.
This opinion was released three months after oral arguments in this case.