Leroy Eldon Cole v. Southeast Iowa Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine, PC; MGM Healthcare; Midwest Geriatric Management, LLC; Michael William Hendricks; Arbor Court Healthcare, LLC; and Arbor Court Realty, LLC c/o MGM Healthcare

── Leroy Eldon Cole v. Southeast Iowa Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine, PC; MGM Healthcare; Midwest Geriatric Management, LLC; Michael William Hendricks; Arbor Court Healthcare, LLC; and Arbor Court Realty, LLC c/o MGM Healthcare ── Court: Supreme Court of Iowa Date: May 08, 2026 Category: General In the Iowa Supreme Court No. 25–0285 Submitted April 15, 2026—Filed May 8, 2026 Leroy Cole, personally and as executor of the Estate of Betty Ann Cole, Appellant, vs. Arbor Court Healthcare LLC, Midwest Geriatric Management LLC, MGM Healthcare, Arbor Court Realty LLC, Southeast Iowa Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine, PC, and Michael W. Hendricks, Appellees, Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Henry County, Shane M. Wiley, judge. Interlocutory appeal from an order granting the defendants’ motion to compel arbitration. Reversed and Case Remanded. McDonald, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which all justices joined. Benjamin Bergmann (argued), Clinton Luth, and Carly Scott of Parrish Kruidenier L.L.P., Des Moines, for appellant. Graham R. Carl (argued) and Tricia Hoffman-Simanek of Shuttleworth & Ingersoll, P.L.C., Cedar Rapids, for appellees Arbor Court Healthcare, LLC, Midwest Geriatric Management, LLC, MGM Healthcare, and Arbor Court Realty, LLC.  2 McDonald, Justice. This is an appeal concerning the enforceability of an arbitration agreement. Arbor Court is a skilled nursing care facility.1 Arbor Court presented an arbitration agreement to one of its residents, Betty Cole. Betty signed the arbitration agreement. She died twelve days later. Her husband, Leroy Cole, individually and as the executor of Betty’s estate, filed this suit in the district court against Arbor Court and other defendants. Cole asserted claims for negligence, gross negligence, wrongful death, and dependent adult abuse, among others. After litigating the case in the district court for almost one year, Arbor Court moved to compel arbitration. Cole resisted the motion, arguing that the arbitration agreement was procedurally unconscionable and that Arbor Court waived its contractual right to arbitration by availing itself of the litigation process in the district court. The district court granted the motion, and this court granted Cole’s application for interlocutory appeal. On review for the correction of errors at law, see Wesley Ret. Servs., Inc. v. Hansen Lind Meyer, Inc., 594 N.W.2d 22, 29 (Iowa 1999), we conclude the district court erred in granting the motion to compel because Arbor Court waived its contractual right to arbitration. Because we conclude Arbor Court waived its contractual right, we need not address Cole’s argument regarding procedural unconscionability. A contractual right to arbitration, like all contract rights, may be waived, Mod. Piping, Inc. v. Blackhawk Automatic Sprinklers, Inc., 581 N.W.2d 616, 619 (Iowa 1998), overruled in part on other grounds by, Wesley Ret. Servs., 594 N.W.2d 22. Iowa precedents have provided that “[t]he essential test for waiver of 1The entities alleged to be involved in the ownership and management of Arbor Court and named as defendants in this case include Arbor Court Healthcare LLC, Midwest Geriatric Management LLC, MGM Healthcare, and Arbor Court Realty LLC. We refer to them collectively as “Arbor Court.”  3 arbitration requires conduct or activity inconsistent with the right to arbitration and prejudice to the party claiming waiver.” Wesley Ret. Servs., 594 N.W.2d at 30 (quoting Clinton Nat. Bank v. Kirk Gross Co., 559 N.W.2d 282, 284 (Iowa 1997)). The two leading cases in Iowa are Modern Piping and Wesley Retirement Services. In Modern Piping, this court held that a subcontractor waived its right to arbitrate when it initiated suit in district court and then engaged in eighteen months of litigation—utilizing discovery methods unavailable in arbitration— before moving to compel arbitration only five days before tr