Disney has asked a court to dismiss a widowed husband’s wrongful death lawsuit because he signed up for a free trial of Disney+ and purchased tickets to the company’s theme park, court documents show.
Jeffrey J. Piccolo first filed the lawsuit in February on behalf of his late wife, Kanokporn Tangsuan, in central Florida.
According to court documents, Tangsuan died on October 5, 2023 of a “severe acute allergic reaction” after eating at Raglan Road Irish Pub and Restaurant at Disney Springs, an outdoor shopping and entertainment complex at Walt Disney World.
Tangsuan suffered from severe milk and nut allergies, so her family ate at the Raglan Road Irish Pub and Restaurant because they believed it had the “proper safety precautions” in place. According to court documents, Tangsuan and Piccolo asked an employee “multiple times” if the restaurant offered allergen-free food, which an employee confirmed.
But Tangsuan, a New York doctor, was hospitalized after collapsing at Planet Hollywood, according to court documents. A medical examiner’s inquest determined her cause of death was “anaphylactic shock due to increased amounts of milk and nuts in her body.”
“DISNEY failed to educate, train and/or instruct its apparent representatives at RAGLAN ROAD, including but not limited to employees, waiters, waitresses, cooks, managers, workers and/or cast members, to ensure that foods labeled on the menu as allergen-free and/or foods that were supposed to be made allergen-free were in fact free of allergens,” one complaint states.
Piccolo sought damages of over $50,000 from Disney and restaurant operator Great Irish Pubs Florida, Inc.
Disney argues that Piccolo must settle the matter out of court
In response to the lawsuit, Disney argues that Piccolo must settle with them out of court because he created a Disney account through the Disney+ website in 2019.
By registering for the account, you must agree to the “Subscriber Agreement” and the Terms of Use.
“The terms of service provided with the subscriber agreement contain a binding arbitration clause. The first page of the subscriber agreement states in all capital letters that ‘any dispute between you and us, except for small claims, is subject to a class action waiver and must be resolved by individual binding arbitration,'” the court documents say.
In court documents, the company said Piccolo accepted those terms again when he purchased theme park tickets online in 2023.
Disney explained that Piccolo’s terms of service state that the matter must be resolved through arbitration, a process in which a neutral third party settles the matter out of court.
“…Piccolo ignores that he previously created a Disney account and agreed to arbitrate ‘all disputes’ against ‘The Walt Disney Company or its affiliates’ arising ‘in contract, tort, warranty, statute, regulation or any other legal or equitable theory,'” Disney said in court documents. “This broad language covers Piccolo’s claims against WDPR. Because the parties agreed to arbitrate these claims, the court should compel arbitration and stay the proceedings.”
Piccolo’s lawyers called Disney’s argument “completely flawed” and bordering on “surreal.”
In a court document filed this month, Piccolo’s legal representatives criticized Disney’s argument as “completely flawed” and “absurd.”
Piccolo’s lawyers say Disney’s argument is based “on the incredible argument that any person who signs up for a Disney+ account, even for free trials that do not extend beyond the trial period, forever waives the right to a jury trial to which he or she and any future estate of which he or she is a part…”
Disney’s argument that its terms of service extend to personal injury and wrongful death claims, “no matter how far removed from Disney+” “borders on the surreal,” the document says.
Her husband asked a judge in court documents to deny Disney’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the company “expressly seeks to prevent its 150 million Disney+ subscribers from ever bringing a wrongful death suit against the company before a jury, even if the facts of the case have nothing to do with Disney+.”
“The notion that terms to which a consumer agrees when creating a free trial account for Disney+ would forever deprive that consumer of the right to a jury trial in any dispute with a Disney affiliate or subsidiary is so egregiously unreasonable and unfair that it shocks the judicial conscience, and this Court should not enforce such an agreement,” the document states.
Representatives for Disney and Raglan Road Irish Pub did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.