Jill, a skilled and successful motocross motorcycle racer, started riding and racing motorcycles on a motocross track at age 14. Routinely, motocross tracks require riders to sign exculpatory releases before allowing people to ride or race on the track. If the participant is a minor, tracks require the participant's parents to sign the waiver document.
When Jill was 17, but about to turn 18, she entered the Texas Championship Race at Cologne Raceway MX Park, in Goliad County, Texas. During the race, a barrier made and used by the track operators became detached from its mounting and fell into the middle of the course, just as the lead group of racers rounded a corner, causing a huge wreck in which Jill was badly injured.
A year later, Jill's insurance company, which had paid for the treatment of her injuries and thereby became entitled to assert her claims against those who may have caused those injuries, sued Cologne Raceway MX Park for negligence.
The track could not locate a waiver signed by Jill or her parents on the day of the race, but argued that she must have signed one in order to enter, and even if she had not, she was aware of the bargain made to "ride at your own risk" and her actions indicated she intended to be bound by those normally applicable terms.
Discuss:
1-Did Jill have contractual capacity to enter into a contract containing an exculpatory clause? Explain.
2-Assuming she did agree to the exculpatory clause, did she later disaffirm or ratify it? How so?
3-Now assume that Jill was 18 at the time of the race and that she had signed the waiver containing the exculpatory clause. How would this have affected her ability to disaffirm or ratify the agreement?