Parents must go through arbitration, court rules

The Utah Supreme Court has ruled that a Utah couple must go through the process of medical arbitration first before contesting the validity of a medical arbitration agreement.

Weston and Shannon Powell claim a medical arbitration agreement they signed with the Avenues Women's Center and Salt Lake Regional Medical Center should not prevent them from suing over the injury of their child during birth.

The couple claims that a doctor applied excessive traction to their baby's head during delivery, resulting in injury, and that the doctor should have performed a Caesarean section.

The hospital and center argued to the court that the Powells cannot sue because Shannon Powell had signed an arbitration agreement on her first visit at the center.

In their ruling issued Tuesday, the justices ruled that a district court judge's order, compelling the Powells into arbitration, was not considered a "final judgment" and that the Powells should give arbitration a try before appealing.

"Limiting appeals to final judgments preserves scarce judicial resources by preventing a party from prematurely appealing a nonfinal judgement, which would result in piecemeal litigation," the justices wrote.

At the heart of the case rests a novel legal issue: Can an unborn child be held to a legal contract signed by the mother?

Todd Wahlquist, attorney for the Powells, said the Utah Supreme Court has never dealt with that issue. To get to that issue, however, his clients will have to spend significant time and money going through arbitration before they can challenge the actual arbitration agreement and get the Supreme Court to hear the issue.

This situation was created when the Utah Legislature passed the Utah Uniform Arbitration Act.

Wahlquist said the irony is that had the center and Salt Lake Regional lost in district court, they would have appealed and the Supreme Court would have dealt with the legal questions. But the Utah Uniform Arbitration Act requires patients to go through arbitration first before challenging a malpractice claim, placing an additional hoop in front of patients.

"We suspect we will end up in arbitration," Wahlquist said, adding it is likely that if they do end up appealing, they will have to wait about two years for the Supreme Court to rule.

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E-mail: gfattah@desnews.com