Disney has dropped a controversial legal claim that the terms and conditions a widower agreed to when signing up for Disney+ streaming service protect it from a wrongful death lawsuit he brought over his wife’s death after she ate at a resort restaurant.
On Monday night, Josh D’Amaro, the chair of Disney Experiences, released a statement announcing that Disney had decided to have the matter proceed in court, rather than through arbitration, as the company had been fighting for just last week.
“At Disney, we strive to put humanity above all other considerations,” D’Amaro said. “With such unique circumstances as the ones in this case, we believe this situation warrants a sensitive approach to expedite a resolution for the family who have experienced such a painful loss. As such, we’ve decided to waive our right to arbitration and have the matter proceed in court.”
Disney made headlines last week after its lawyers asked a judge in Florida to dismiss the wrongful death lawsuit and settle any disputes with the company out of court via arbitration. The company’s lawyers argued the widower had agreed to Disney’s terms of use – which state that users agree to settle any disputes with the company out of court via arbitration – when he signed up for a one-month free trial of Disney+ in 2019, and again in 2023, when he purchased the Disney theme park tickets using his Disney+ account.
In court documents, attorneys for Disney argued that the terms of use included an arbitration clause that applied to “all disputes” including those involving “The Walt Disney Company or its affiliates” and that Walt Disney Parks and Resorts was an affiliate of the Walt Disney Company.
Daniel Zuniga, a partner at Personal Injury of Florida law firm, described the argument as “unconscionable”. “The consequences of such a ruling or such a holding could be catastrophic for the average person,” he told the Guardian when the suit was disclosed. “Big conglomerates just keep getting bigger and bigger, so how far up the chain can it go?”
Jeffrey Piccolo filed the wrongful death lawsuit against Walt Disney World and Resorts and a restaurant at the resort earlier this year after his wife, Dr Kanokporn Tangsuan, died in October 2023 after eating at the Raglan Road Irish Pub at the resort near Orlando, Florida.
In the lawsuit, Piccolo alleges that his wife’s death was a result of suffering an allergic reaction, which is supported by the report of a medical examiner who determined that her cause of death was anaphylaxis due to elevated levels of dairy and nut in her system.
Piccolo says that while they were dining at the resort restaurant he and his wife both questioned the waiter multiple times, as Tangsuan had a severe allergy to dairy and nuts, and that the waiter assured them that the order would be allergen-free.
The lawsuit argues that the wait staff was negligent and seeks damages exceeding $50,000 from Disney, per the complaint.
Monday’s statement from Disney comes as a complete reversal of a position the company took last week when a spokesperson defended the company’s legal strategy and said:
“We are deeply saddened by the family’s loss and understand their grief. Given that this restaurant is neither owned nor operated by Disney, we are merely defending ourselves against the plaintiff’s attorney’s attempt to include us in their lawsuit against the restaurant.”
Piccolo’s lawyers had called Disney’s argument for dismissal “surreal” in court documents, and personal injury and wrongful death lawyers had described Disney’s arguments as a legal stretch.
The litigation remains ongoing and a hearing is scheduled for 2 October.