JEFFERSON CITY • A Missouri appeals court Tuesday blocked another bid by Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke and the National Football League to force an ongoing lawsuit over the 2016 relocation of the team into arbitration.

In a 17-page decision, a three judge panel of the Missouri Appeals Court, Eastern District, found that the Rams can’t force a lawsuit to be hammered out behind closed doors based on the language of the team’s 1995 lease agreement.

The court said rules governing the arbitration issue weren’t in place until eight years after the 1995 contract was put in place.

“Simply stated, the change in the … rules in 2003 cannot and does not alter the parties’ contractual intent in 1995. The … rules are not a time machine,” the court noted.

The case, filed 15 months after the January 2016 relocation vote by NFL owners, pits the city of St. Louis, St. Louis County and the Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority against the Rams, the NFL and the 31 other NFL teams and their owners.