A New Jersey couple injured during an Uber ride has been blocked from pursuing legal action after the ride-share company argued that a clause their young daughter agreed to when ordering pizza from Uber Eats prevented them from taking the company to court.
John and Georgia McGinty were critically injured in a March 2022 car crash when their Uber driver ran a red light, according to court filings.
However, a New Jersey court of appeals sided with the tech company in a Sept. 20 decision and ruled that the McGintys could not take legal action for personal injury claims because someone using Georgia’s phone accepted an arbitration agreement in January 2022.
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The Guardian reported that the couple believes it was their daughter, then 12 years old at the time, who accepted the terms before ordering the pizza and said they were “surprised and heartbroken” that a company as large as Uber would enforce the arbitration to skate liability.
“Dozens of pages on an iPhone screen during a food delivery order make it impossible that anyone could understand what rights they were potentially waiving or how drastic the consequences could be,” the couple said.
After a lower court ruled in favor of the McGintys, the New Jersey superior court appellate division reversed the decision ruling that the agreement that “Georgia or her minor daughter, while using her cell phone, agreed to” was “valid and enforceable.”
The McGintys told the Today show that they plan to appeal the court’s decision, but their story is only the latest case of a company using arbitration agreements pushed out from their other platforms.
A widower attempted to bring a wrongful death lawsuit against Disney this summer after his wife fatally had an allergic reaction to food she ate at Disney World. However, the company cited the terms his wife agreed upon through a free trial of its Disney+ streaming platform to try having the lawsuit dismissed.
