The Seattle Mariners baseball team and its stadium’s operator may have failed to adequately follow federal guidance for spectators who use wheelchairs under the 1991 Americans with Disabilities Act, a federal appeals court said Wednesday in overturning a lower court ruling.

Plaintiffs alleged in litigation filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle that spectators who use wheelchairs at T-Mobile Park, where the Mariners play, had inadequate sightlines under the ADA, as spelled out in the Department of Justice’s 1996 Accessible Stadiums guidance, according to the ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco in Clark Landis et al. v. Washington State Major League Baseball Stadium Public Facilities District et al.

The district court held the defendants complied with the ADA but was overturned by a three-judge appeals court panel in a ruling that focused on the people standing in front of those in wheelchairs.

The district court did not properly apply the standard in Accessible Stadiums “because it analyzed only the requirement that a person using a wheelchair must be able to see the playing surface between the heads and over the shoulders of the persons standing in the row immediately in front,” it said.

The lower court erred “by failing to analyze the additional requirement that a person using a wheelchair must be able to see the playing surface over the heads of the person standing two rows in front of them,” the ruling said.

The ruling concludes: “We express no opinion at this point as to the ultimate issue – whether the Stadium’s sightlines for spectators using wheelchairs are sufficient to satisfy the ADA,” it said.

“To properly consider that question, a full analysis of the Accessible Stadiums requirements is needed,” it said, in vacating the district court’s ruling and remanding the case for further proceedings.

Conrad Reynoldson, founder and lead attorney of Seattle-based Washington Civil & Disability Advocate, a Seattle-based disability rights and civil rights nonprofit organization, who was one of the plaintiffs attorneys, said in a statement, “We are pleased with the ruling from the Ninth Circuit. Everyone deserves an accessible and inclusive experience.

“Baseball fans with disabilities simply wish to have a comparable view of the game when they go out to enjoy America's pastime. We are hopeful that this decision will lead to positive changes going forward.”

The defendants’ attorney did not respond to a request for comment.