The New Mexico Supreme Court's unanimous ruling last Friday that the arbitration provision in a sales contract between computer giant Dell Inc. and New Mexico consumer Robert Fiser was invalid is a "victory for consumers," state Attorney General Gary King said in a news release.

The Attorney General's Office filed a friend-of-the-court brief last fall supporting Fiser's class-action lawsuit against Dell for allegedly selling him a computer that did not have as much storage capacity as Dell claimed it did, the news release said.

The state Court of Appeals later ruled that Fiser did not have the right to bring a class-action lawsuit because he was bound by the terms of an arbitration agreement contained inside the packaging of a computer he purchased through Dell's Web site, the release said.

The state Supreme Court, however found the arbitration provision invalid and reversed the state Court of Appeals, sending the case back to state District Court, according to the release.

"This is a case of David taking on Goliath," King said in the news release. "But we supported Mr. Fiser's lawsuit because it is about protecting New Mexico consumers from unfair and deceptive trade practices so we are very happy with the Supreme Court's ruling; this is a victory for consumers."

King said in the release that the high court ruling opens the door for a class-action suit against the computer giant.

At the time, King said the New Mexico appellate court wrongly determined that Texas law, not New Mexico law, should apply to the case, the AP reported.

King also said the appellate court erred by saying that Fiser was precluded from filing a class-action lawsuit, the AP said.

The Supreme Court found last Friday that "contractual prohibitions on class relief are contrary to New Mexico's fundamental public policy of encouraging the resolution of small consumer claims and are therefore unenforceable in this state," according to the AG's Office news release.

Even though the alleged damages from the alleged misrepresentation were small -- amounting to perhaps 10 to 20 dollars per computer -- the court wrote: "It is a fundamental New Mexico policy that consumers have a viable mechanism for dispute resolution no matter the size of the claim."

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