Disney Relents, Won't Use Fine Print to Block Widower's Lawsuit

UPDATE Aug 20, 2024 7:46 AM CDT

Disney has reversed course and will not try to block a widower's lawsuit based on the fine print of a long-ago Disney+ trial, reports CNN. The company had initially argued that the man couldn't sue over his wife's allergy death at a Disney restaurant because of legalese buried in the contract when they signed up for a streaming trial years earlier. Details follow:

Aug 14, 2024 1:40 PM CDT

In 2019, Jeffrey Piccolo signed up for a one-month free trial of the Disney+ streaming service. Disney's lawyers say that means he can't sue the company over the death of his wife at Disney World four years later. In court filings that Piccolo's lawyers describe as "preposterous," Disney says that the fine print in the Disney+ terms and conditions states that "any dispute with the company is subject to a class action waiver and must be resolved by individual binding arbitration," NPR reports.

• Piccolo filed the lawsuit earlier this year, accusing Disney of negligence in the death of his wife, NYU Langone Health physician Dr. Kanokporn Tangsuan. According to the lawsuit, she died from a severe allergic reaction after eating a meal at a Disney World restaurant. The lawsuit states that she made it clear to the waiter that she had severe dairy and nut allergies, and the waiter "unequivocally assured them that the food would be allergen free." The lawsuit is seeking at least $50,000 in damages.

• In court filings, Disney has sought to halt legal proceedings, saying Piccolo agreed to the arbitration conditions when he signed up for the Disney+ trial and again when he bought park tickets online for the October visit that ended in tragedy. In a May filing, Disney said it was "immaterial" whether Piccolo had read the fine print.
• In a response filed earlier this month, Piccolo's lawyers said Disney's argument was bordering "on the surreal." "There is simply no reading of the Disney+ Subscriber Agreement which would support the notion that Mr. Piccolo agreed to arbitrate claims arising from injuries sustained by his wife at a restaurant located on premises owned by a Disney theme park or resort which ultimately led to her death," they wrote, per NPR.

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• Piccolo's lawyers added that permanently removing the right to a jury trial in disputes with the company for "anybody who had signed a Disney+ agreement" is "so outrageously unreasonable and unfair as to shock the judicial conscience." The company "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+," they wrote.
• Ernest Aduwa, a lawyer not involved in the case, tells the BBC that Disney "is pushing the envelope of contract law." The courts, he says, "will have to consider, on balance, if the arbitration clause in a contract for a streaming service can really be applied to as serious an allegation of wrongful death through negligence at a theme park."
• A judge will rule on the motion in a Florida court in September.

(More Disney stories.)