WALLIS, J.
Fi-Evergreen Woods, LLC ("Fi-Evergreen"), Themis Health Management, LLC ("Themis Health"), and Airamid Health Management, LLC n/k/a Airamid Health Services, LLC ("Airamid Health"), appeal an order denying their respective motions to compel arbitration.
T.C. Robinson ("Husband") admitted his wife, May Robinson ("Resident"), to a nursing home after she fractured her left hip. In her complaint, Resident alleged that she resided at the nursing home from February 16, 2011, to March 28, 2011, and from April 4, 2011, to May 4, 2011. She alleged that, while in the care of the nursing home, she fractured her right hip and suffered other medical complications due to Appellants' negligence. Resident also alleged that Appellants breached a fiduciary duty by accepting payments and not providing appropriate care. Finally, Resident sought to recover under the Adult Protective Services Act, section 415.1111, Florida Statutes (2011), under which she alleged that she was a vulnerable adult with a long-term disability who did not have capacity to consent.
The same counsel represented Debra Howe and Appellants. However, for each appellant, counsel filed separate motions and amended motions to stay and demand for arbitration, despite the language being substantially similar. Fi-Evergreen filed its Motion to Compel Arbitration on January 24, 2012. Themis Health and Airamid Health filed a joint Motion to Stay and Demand for Arbitration on January 24, 2012. Debra Howe did not file a motion to compel arbitration in January 2012.
On February 10, 2012, Resident filed her Memorandum in Opposition to Defendants' Arbitration Motions and Request for Hearing, arguing she was entitled to a presumption of competence, despite alleging in her complaint that she had a long-term disability and was without the capacity to consent. On February 20, 2012, Fi-Evergreen, Themis Health, and Airamid Health filed amended motions to compel. Also, on February 20, 2012, Debra Howe filed an initial Motion to Stay and Demand for Arbitration.
In the arbitration agreement attached to the motions and amended motions to compel arbitration, Husband signed the agreement and indicated his relationship to Resident as "Husband." Resident's name does not appear on the agreement. Husband did not complete the portion of the agreement that asked him to describe his authority to sign on behalf of Resident.
On April 9, 2012, the lower court entered an order denying (1) Fi-Evergreen's Motion to Compel Arbitration and (2) Themis Health and Airamid Health's joint Motion to Stay and Demand for Arbitration. The lower court did not rule on Appellants' amended motions or Debra Howe's initial motion. The lower court found that the arbitration agreement on its face was wholly lacking and, thus, unenforceable because Husband had not indicated on the agreement his authority to sign on Resident's behalf.
We review de novo an order denying a motion to compel arbitration. Hubbard Constr. Co. v. Jacobs Civil, Inc., 969 So.2d 1069, 1072 (Fla. 5th DCA 2007) (citing Avid Eng'g, Inc. v. Orlando Marketplace, Ltd., 809 So.2d 1 (Fla. 5th DCA 2001)).
§ 682.03(1), Fla. Stat. (2012) (emphasis added).
A failure to sign an arbitration agreement does not automatically render the agreement invalid. Santos v. Gen. Dynamics Aviation Servs. Corp., 984 So.2d 658, 660 (Fla. 4th DCA 2008) (noting that Florida Arbitration Act does not require a written arbitration agreement to be signed
In the absence of a signature, the courts look to a party's words and conduct to determine whether the party assented to the agreement. Id. An exception to the general rule that only parties to an arbitration agreement can be compelled to arbitrate exists "when the signatory of the arbitration agreement is authorized to act as the agent of the person sought to be bound, and `[n]on-signatories may be bound by an arbitration agreement if dictated by ordinary principles of contract law and agency.'" Stalley v. Transitional Hosps. Corp. of Tampa, Inc., 44 So.3d 627, 629-30 (Fla. 2d DCA 2010) (quoting Martha A. Gottfried, Inc. v. Paulette Koch Real Estate, 778 So.2d 1089, 1090 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001)). "An agency relationship can arise by written consent, oral consent, or by implication from the conduct of the parties." Stalley, 44 So.3d at 630 (citing Thomkin Corp. v. Miller, 156 Fla. 388, 24 So.2d 48, 49 (1945)).
The lower court should have considered parol evidence
However, courts allow parol evidence regarding identity, capacity, and the parties' relationship with one another even when the ambiguity exists on the face of the document because the court would not be rewriting the terms of the contract. Landis, 329 So.2d at 326 (stating that when "the ambiguity is patent, to admit evidence would be improper since it would, in effect, allow the court to rewrite the contract for the parties by supplying information the parties themselves did not choose to include," but "that distinction is not relevant here since the court was only interested in determining the capacity of the parties who entered the agreement rather than in varying or supplying any terms to the agreement"). The lower court should permit Appellants to present
Accordingly, the lower court should have conducted an evidentiary hearing pursuant to section 682.03(1), Florida Statutes (2012), to resolve one of two factual issues: (1) whether Resident assented to the arbitration agreement in the absence of her signature; or (2) whether Husband had authority to sign on Resident's behalf. Therefore, the trial court's order denying Fi-Evergreen's and Themis Health and Airamid Health's motions to compel arbitration is reversed and remanded for further proceedings.
REVERSED and REMANDED.
GRIFFIN and PALMER, JJ., concur.