DANIEL E. TAYLOR AND WILLIAM TAYLOR, AS CO-EXECUTORS OF THE ESTATE OF ANNA MARIE TAYLOR, DECEASED v. EXTENDICARE HEALTH FACILITIES, INC. D/B/A HAVENCREST NURSING CENTER; EXTENDICARE HOLDINGS, INC.; EXTENDICARE HEALTH FACILITY HOLDINGS, INC.; EXTENDICARE HEALTH SERVICES, INC.; EXTENDICARE REIT; EXTENDICARE, L.P.; EXTENDICARE, INC.; MON VALE NON ACUTE CARE SERVICE, INC. D/B/A THE RESIDENCE AT HILLTOP; MON-VALE HEALTH RESOURCES, INC; JEFFERSON HEALTH SERVICES, D/B/A JEFFERSON REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER. APPEAL OF: EXTENDICARE HEALTH FACILITIES, INC., D/B/A HAVENCREST NURSING CENTER, EXTENDICARE HOLDINGS, INC., EXTENDICARE HEALTH FACILITY HOLDINGS, INC., EXTENDICARE HEALTH SERVICES, INC., EXTENDICARE REIT, EXTENDICARE, L.P. AND EXTENDICARE, INC., 637 Pa. 163

Summary

ISSUE: Whether the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), 9 U.S.C.S. §§ 1 - 14, preempted a lower courts' application of Pa.R.C.P. No. 213(e), which required the consolidation of survival and wrongful death actions for trial, when a representative of a nursing center executed an arbitration agreement with the decedent requiring the arbitration of claims arising from the decedent's stay at the nursing center facility and the coexecutors of the decedent's estate brought wrongful death claims on behalf of themselves as wrongful death beneficiaries and survival claims on behalf of the decedent's estate. HOLDINGS: [1]-The FAA preempted the application of Rule 213(e), which was a procedural mechanism to control case flow and conflicted with the FAA, and required arbitration of the survival claim against the nursing center.