## Facts

- Techni-Graphics, Inc. (TGI) entered a 39-month commercial equipment lease with U-Vend, Inc. for a coffee machine at $209.50 per month.
- A personal guaranty was executed in connection with the lease.
- The lease and guaranty were standardized, preprinted forms in single-spaced, very small type.
- Each document included a jury-trial waiver embedded within dense text (in the lease, at the end of a lengthy paragraph; in the guaranty, near the end of a 25-line paragraph).
- The lease was assigned to Fairfield Leasing Corporation (FLC), which sued TGI for nonpayment after TGI stopped paying and complained of machine defects.
- TGI demanded a jury trial; FLC and U-Vend moved to strike the jury demand based on the contractual waivers.
- The lease included a New York choice-of-law clause, which FLC and U-Vend invoked to support enforcement of the waivers.

## Issues

1. Whether the jury-trial waivers in the lease and guaranty were knowing, voluntary, and intelligent under New Jersey law so as to bar TGI’s civil jury right.
2. Whether the contract’s New York choice-of-law clause governed enforceability of the jury-trial waiver, or whether New Jersey law applied due to New Jersey public policy.

## Decision

- The court denied the motion to strike TGI’s jury demand.
- The court held the jury-trial waivers unenforceable because the record and presentation of the clauses did not show a knowing and voluntary waiver.
- The court declined to apply New York law to the jury-waiver question and instead applied New Jersey law based on New Jersey’s strong public policy protecting the civil jury right.

## Legal Principles

- In New Jersey, contractual waivers of the civil right to jury trial are disfavored and strictly construed; waiver requires a clear, knowing, and voluntary relinquishment.
- A waiver embedded in inconspicuous, fine-print boilerplate within a standardized form contract generally does not establish an intentional waiver absent additional indicia (such as clear prominence or evidence the clause was specifically brought to the party’s attention).
- A contractual choice-of-law clause will not be applied to enforce a jury-waiver provision where application of the chosen law would conflict with New Jersey’s strong public policy safeguarding the right to a civil jury trial.
- Commercial context and corporate status do not, by themselves, validate an inconspicuous jury-waiver clause.

## Conclusion

The court required a clear showing that the lessee intentionally surrendered its civil jury right and held that fine-print jury-waiver language buried in standardized lease and guaranty forms was insufficient; New Jersey law governed despite a New York choice-of-law clause because enforcing the waiver under the chosen law would contravene New Jersey public policy.


Fairfield Leasing Corp. v. Techni-Graphics, Inc., 256 N.J. Super. 538, 607 A.2d 703 (Law Div. 1992)