The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled Tuesday that Philadelphia Eagles fans who were injured at a Washington Commanders game in which a railing collapsed and who attended the game as family and friends of a ticket purchaser could be bound by an arbitration clause even though they didn’t buy the tickets.

Naimoli et al. v. Pro-Football, Inc. et al. could serve as valuable precedent for teams that use arbitration clauses to evade tort litigation of injured spectators.

Michael Naimoli Jr., Morgan French, Andrew Collins and Marissa Santarlasci were among nine people who drove from New Jersey to FedExField (now called Northwest Stadium) to attend the Eagles-Commanders (Washington Football Team) game on Jan. 2, 2022. They attended the game using tickets purchased online by Brandon Gordon, who was related to, or a friend of, group members. Although Gordon is factually central to the dispute, he’s not a party to the litigation.