An appeals court Wednesday backed the Miami Dolphins and the operator of Hard Rock Stadium in a dispute about whether a lawsuit over a fan’s injury should be sent to arbitration.
Cameron Engwiller filed a lawsuit against the Dolphins and South Florida Stadium, LLC, after she was injured at a 2022 game when a fight broke out among fans.
Engwiller attended the game with her boyfriend and mother, who got electronic tickets for the game from her employer. The Dolphins and the stadium company argued that the lawsuit should go to arbitration under ticket terms that could be read through a hyperlink.
Wednesday’s ruling by a panel of the 3rd District Court of Appeal said Engwiller’s “mother agreed to the mandatory arbitration provision in the hyperlinked ticketback terms when she accessed the tickets using the Dolphins account manager website, and that appellee (Engwiller) was bound by her mother’s agreement.”
A Miami-Dade County circuit judge rejected the arbitration argument, but the appeals-court panel overturned that decision and ordered arbitration. The 13-page decision, written by Judge Bronwyn Miller and joined by Judges Norma Lindsey and Monica Gordo, said “arbitration agreements are designed to promote efficient dispute resolution.
Allowing a guest patron to accept the benefits of an entrance ticket without regard to corresponding conditions would undermine this important public policy consideration and create an unworkable precedent, potentially disrupting any industry reliant on uniform ticket terms.”
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