Gabrielle Russon
The Mouse has prevailed in a nearly five year legal battle over its troubled construction project at Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort.
Orange Circuit Court Judge Chad Alvaro ordered the Validus Construction Services to pay Disney $3.5 million following a trial this Summer, according to the June 24 final judgement.
Alvaro also granted Disney’s motion to dismiss Validus’ lawsuit originally filed in July 2020.
Validus, a small women-run business from Winter Haven, sought $7 million for unpaid work while Disney argued it deserved $3.5 million, according to court transcripts from a 2024 hearing.
Neither Disney World nor Validus’ attorney responded to a request for comment for this story.
Validus had won the $48 million contract to renovate the Disney Vacation Club resort’s 1,260 hotel rooms in 18 buildings. Disney fired Validus and hired another company to complete the project.
During the breakdown between Validus and Disney, both sides eventually sued each other. A half-dozen subcontractors who didn’t get paid also filed complaints against Validus.
A Validus attorney described the subcontractors not getting paid as a domino effect since Validus suffered massive financial losses from working with Disney after discovering an unexpected defect in the resort that violated fire and building codes.
“The project which should have netted Validus millions of dollars in construction management profits, deteriorated into a dysfunctional construction mess brought about by a multitude of contract breaches by Disney, which fatally interfered with the project,” Validus said in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit centering around breach of contract issues contained some sensational details.
Validus’ owner Nicole Wickens complained that a Disney project manager taunted her with messages she considered to be misogynistic, such as a picture of a hot sauce pack to literally put the heat on her, according to court records.
Both sides brought plenty of accusations against each other during a 2024 court hearing, according to the transcripts filed in the court case.
“Early on in the project Validus began misappropriating money that Disney had paid for the purpose of it being in turn paid to the subcontractors,” said Disney attorney John Dannecker. “There is unrefuted evidence of that fact in the record. Validus took the money, don’t know what it did with it, but it did not pay the subcontractors.”
Dannecker said Validus submitted false contractor affidavits claiming the subcontractors had been paid.
“At the time that Disney terminated Validus, Validus had finished less than one-third of the 18 buildings, less than one-third,” he said, adding some work was poorly done.
Meanwhile Validus’ attorney, Thomas Allison, blamed Disney for subcontractors not being paid and other problems.
“Disney in Validus’ view made it impossible for Validus to succeed,” he challenged. “Validus was doing absolutely everything possible to execute on the directives and scope changes that Disney dictated.”
