Couple can’t sue Uber after daughter clicked away trial rights on Uber Eats

A couple, badly hurt in an Uber crash, can’t sue the company because their daughter once waived trial rights while using Uber Eats — a fateful click that prevents the family from suing the tech giant, a New Jersey appellate court ruled.

Georgia and John McGinty were passengers in an Uber on March 31, 2022, when their driver blew through a red light, broadsiding another car, and leading to major injuries to the couple, according to court records.

But the court ruled that the couple cannot sue the tech giant because their daughter, a minor, once checked a box while using her mother’s phone to order a pizza on Uber Eats, agreeing to waive trial rights.

As such, any future disputes with the platform should be argued not before a potentially sympathetic panel of the couple’s peers but in front of a private arbitrator, the company claimed.

The state court agreed with the tech giant, ruling that the daughter’s fateful pizza order Jan. 8, 2022 — made while the family was packing for a ski trip — covered all future, potential legal claims.

And even before that pizza order, the company said, Georgia McGinty had previously clicked through Uber’s fine print, agreeing to waive a jury trial.

“Georgia certified that her daughter was ‘capable,’ would frequently order food, and she and John were preoccupied with packing, which supports the inference that the daughter acted knowingly on Georgia’s behalf,” the state court said in a ruling late last month. 

The couple plans to appeal.

Even though case law on issues over fine print often varies case by case, the couple’s lawyer, Evan Lide, insisted that more courts are ruling for consumers.

“I remind you, we’re talking about our constitutional right to a jury trial,” Lide told NBC News. “That’s a Seventh Amendment right.”

Georgia McGinty suffered cervical and lumbar spine fractures, rib fractures, a protruding hernia and other “traumatic injuries” to her abdominal wall and pelvic floor, court records showed. The matrimonial attorney was unable to work again until April 1, 2023.

John McGinty suffered a fractured sternum and severe fractures to his left arm and wrist, leading to a bone graft. He has “diminished use and sensation in his left wrist,” according to the court.