Smyrna Wrongful Death Lawsuit: Tenn. Court Upholds Arbitration

In Williams v. Smyrna Residential, LLC, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled on February 16, 2024, that the family of a man who died shortly after moving into an assisted living facility must arbitrate their wrongful death claim rather than take it to a jury. The court held that an optional arbitration agreement signed by the resident’s daughter under a general power of attorney was enforceable against the resident, and that his wrongful death beneficiaries inherited that obligation along with the claim itself.¹

The Underlying Death and Lawsuit

Granville Williams Jr., 67, was admitted to Azalea Court Senior Living in Smyrna, Tennessee on February 29, 2020. He died on April 27, 2020, less than two months later.²

In 2021, his son James Williams filed a wrongful death lawsuit in the Circuit Court for Rutherford County on behalf of himself and the other beneficiaries. The defendants were Smyrna Residential, LLC, which operated the facility, and Missouri-based Americare Systems, Inc., which managed it. The complaint alleged negligence under the Tennessee Healthcare Liability Act, along with gross negligence and willful, wanton, reckless, and intentional conduct. According to the complaint, the facility knew Williams was at high risk of elopement, and he suffered abuse, neglect, falls and fall-related injuries, delays in care, and severe pain before his death.²

Those allegations have never been tested on the merits. The case was swallowed by a different question: whether the family could be in court at all.

The Arbitration Agreement and the Power of Attorney

In 2007, Granville Williams Jr. signed a durable power of attorney naming his daughter Karen Sams as his agent for “all claims and litigation matters.” That power of attorney explicitly excluded health care decisions.³

When Williams was admitted to Azalea Court in 2020, Sams signed an admission packet that included an arbitration agreement. The arbitration agreement was optional. A resident could be admitted without signing it.¹

After the wrongful death suit was filed, the facility and management company moved to compel arbitration. James Williams opposed on two grounds. First, he argued that signing the arbitration agreement was a health care decision, which Sams had no authority to make under a power of attorney that carved health care out. Second, he argued that he was a wrongful death beneficiary who had never personally signed anything and could not be bound.¹

Both the trial court and the Tennessee Court of Appeals sided with the family. The Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s refusal to compel arbitration on April 8, 2022.⁴

What the Tennessee Supreme Court Held

In an opinion by Justice Sarah K. Campbell, the Tennessee Supreme Court reversed both lower courts and ordered arbitration. The ruling rested on two conclusions.

On the first question, the court held that signing the arbitration agreement was not a health care decision. The decisive fact was that the agreement was optional and not required for admission. Because signing it was not necessary to obtain care, it did not fall within the Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care Act. That meant Sams’s general authority to handle “all claims and litigation matters” was enough to let her sign it on her father’s behalf.¹

On the second question, the court held that wrongful death beneficiaries are bound by the decedent’s arbitration agreement. Under Tennessee law, a wrongful death action is derivative. The cause of action belongs to the decedent and passes to the beneficiary, carrying with it any limitations the decedent was bound by. James Williams had never signed the agreement, but his claim came through his father, and the arbitration obligation came with it.⁵

The case was remanded to the Circuit Court for Rutherford County with instructions to compel arbitration.¹

How the Court Got Around the Owens Precedent

The ruling required the court to distinguish its 2007 decision in Owens v. National Health Corp., which involved a similar fact pattern. In Owens, a power of attorney had signed an arbitration agreement during a nursing home admission, and the court treated signing it as falling within a health care power of attorney. The case was sent back to the trial court to assess whether the agreement’s terms were unconscionable.⁶

The Williams majority pointed to a factual difference. In Owens, the arbitration agreement was part of a mandatory admission contract. In Williams, it was optional. For the majority, that difference changed the character of the decision: signing a mandatory agreement is bound up with getting care, but signing an optional one is a separate litigation choice that fits within an agent’s authority over claims and lawsuits.¹

The Dissents

Two justices dissented.

Chief Justice Holly Kirby objected to the mandatory-versus-optional distinction itself. She wrote that drawing that line leaves the law “unsettled” and will create confusion for families, facilities, and lower courts trying to apply it.¹

Justice Sharon G. Lee wrote more sharply. In her view, the majority “ignores the Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care Act, disregards precedent, and causes confusion.” She argued that an arbitration agreement handed to a family during an admission packet is inseparable from the health care context of entering an assisted living facility, and that signing one is inherently a health care decision. Under that reading, Sams had no authority to sign the agreement, because the power of attorney excluded health care.²

What the Ruling Means for Tennessee Families

For families of residents in Tennessee assisted living and nursing home facilities, the practical reach of the Williams decision is significant. A wrongful death beneficiary who never signed anything can be forced into arbitration based on paperwork a relative signed years earlier, as long as the agent had general authority over claims and litigation and the arbitration agreement was presented as optional. Arbitration is private, uses no jury, limits discovery, restricts appeals, and keeps outcomes confidential.⁵

The ruling also shifts how admission paperwork works in practice. A facility that labels its arbitration agreement optional may be in a stronger position to enforce it than one that makes it mandatory, because the optional label is what pulls the agreement out of the health care decision category under the court’s reasoning. That is the dynamic Chief Justice Kirby flagged in her dissent.¹

If you hold a durable power of attorney for a family member, or if you are the one signing admission paperwork at a Tennessee facility, the Williams decision means the arbitration page in the packet is not a formality. Signing it as agent can bind the resident, and through the resident, the family’s eventual wrongful death claim. Declining to sign an optional arbitration agreement is permitted by definition; the facility cannot refuse admission for that reason alone.

The Williams case itself was sent back to the Rutherford County Circuit Court with directions to compel arbitration. The allegations about what happened to Granville Williams Jr. at Azalea Court have not been decided on the merits, and any arbitration would proceed in private.⁷

1
Tennessee Courts. Tennessee Supreme Court Enforces Arbitration in Wrongful Death Lawsuit
2
McKnight’s Senior Living. Court Upholds Arbitration Agreement in Assisted Living Resident’s Wrongful Death Lawsuit
3
Tennessee Bar Association. Williams v. Smyrna Residential
4
Tennessee Courts. James Williams v. Smyrna Residential LLC et al., Court of Appeals
5
Elder Law Answers. Arbitration Agreement Applies to Wrongful Death Claim
6
Tennessee Bar Association. Owens v. National Health Corporation
7
Tennessee Courts. James Williams v. Smyrna Residential LLC et al., Supreme Court