Fairfield Leasing Corporation v. Techni-Graphics, Inc.
Superior Court of New Jersey
607 A.2d 703 (1992)
Techni-Graphics, Inc. (TGI) (defendant) leased a coffee machine from U-Vend, Inc. under a standardized 23-paragraph form contract; a jury-waiver clause sat at the very end of paragraph 22 and also appeared buried mid-paragraph in a separate guaranty, all in single-spaced text about half the usual typewriter size. U-Vend assigned the lease to Fairfield Leasing Corp. (FLC) (plaintiff). When TGI stopped paying over alleged machine defects, FLC sued for breach and TGI added U-Vend as a third party; TGI demanded a jury trial, and FLC and U-Vend moved to strike that demand based on the buried jury-waiver clause.
Whether a court should enforce a jury-trial waiver provision that is inconspicuously placed within a standardized contract of adhesion signed without the assistance of counsel.