James v. Mcdonald’s Corporation

417 F.3d 672 (7th Cir. 2005)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

In 2001, D was promoting sales of its food products by sponsoring a game called 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire.' P obtained a game card in May of 2001 when she purchased an order of french fries. She believed the game card to be a grand prize winner worth one million dollars. P sent in the original game card to D's redemption center. The redemption center sent her a letter explaining that 'through security codes on your Game Card we have been able to determine that it is a Low-level Prize Game Card. Low-level prizes included food prizes and $1 and $5 in cash. In August 2001, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested eight employees of Simon Marketing who allegedly had stolen the winning game cards from the 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire' game and another D promotion. P filed suit alleging that D induced her to purchase its food products by the chance to win the 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire' game when it knew that, due to the theft of winning game cards, the odds of winning were less than represented. She also alleged that, as part of its fraud scheme, D had used a false pretense to refuse to honor her winning game card. D filed a motion to compel arbitration because the posted game rules required it. D's motion was granted; P could not avoid the arbitration clause by claiming that she never saw or read the Official Rules. P claimed she could not afford the costs needed to be posted to arbitrate. P did not submit authority to support the proposition that prohibitive costs could defeat an agreement to arbitrate common law or state law claims. Eventually, the court dismissed her claims. P appealed.