Samsung Can’t Make Burned Man Arbitrate Phone Claims

An arbitration agreement contained in a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge smartphone’s packaging insert isn’t enforceable, a federal court in California said.

The ruling allows a Daniel Ramirez’s claims that he was badly burned by an exploding smartphone to proceed in court.

Samsung Electronics Co. and its American affiliate, Samsung Electronics America Inc., filed the federal suit to shift Ramirez’s California state court suit to arbitration. A court overseeing consolidated suits against Samsung—a federal multidistrict litigation called In re Samsung Galaxy Smartphone Marketing and Sales Practices Litig.—recently found an arbitration agreement in an identical booklet could be enforced.

But the ...