Gabrielle Russon
Disney is standing behind its legal strategy after the company’s attorneys invoked the Disney+ and theme park app terms of service to fight a widower’s wrongful death lawsuit.
Jeffrey Piccolo sued Disney and the Raglan Road Pub and Irish Restaurant after his wife died last year from her severe food allergies following her meal at the Disney Springs eatery.
Disney is arguing in court records that Piccolo’s wrongful death lawsuit should be paused and sent to arbitration because Piccolo signed up for a Disney+ streaming account and used the My Disney Experience App to buy theme park tickets. According to their terms of service, Disney says users agree cases should go to arbitration, which would rob Piccolo of the jury trial he’s asking for.
“We are deeply saddened by the family’s loss and understand their grief,” Disney said in a statement Wednesday, the first time the company has commented on the situation. “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.”
In court filings, Disney attorneys also said, “Further litigation would only generate needless expenses and waste judicial resources.”
Meanwhile, Piccolo’s attorney, Brian Denney, has called Disney’s argument “preposterous” and “absurd.”
“In effect, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts is explicitly seeking to bar its 150 million Disney+ subscribers from ever prosecuting a wrongful death case against it in front of a jury even if the case facts have nothing to with Disney+,” he wrote in court filings this month.
An Oct. 2 hearing is scheduled in Orange Circuit Court.
The story that Florida Politics broke is getting national attention this week, from The New York Times to TMZ.
Kanokporn Tangsuan, 42, had repeatedly checked with Raglan Road to make sure her food was safe for her extreme allergies to dairy and nuts, according to the lawsuit. She collapsed in a Disney Springs store shortly after dinner. By then, she had split up from her husband and mother-in-law. Tangsuan died alone at the hospital, which haunts her husband, Piccolo’s attorney said.
The Medical Examiner’s Office said her Oct. 5 death was an accident and ruled the cause of death as anaphylaxis, according to the autopsy report Florida Politics obtained through a public records request.
