A man who is suing Disney over the death of his wife at one of the company’s resorts is blasting the Mouse House for its “surreal” attempt to have the case thrown out of court.
Jeffrey Piccolo filed a wrongful death suit in February and claims that Disney is liable for the October, 2023, death of his wife at the Disney Springs resort. The woman died at the Raglan Road Irish Pub located in The Landing in Orlando after eating something she was allergic to in the restaurant.
But Disney’s lawyers countered and insisted that Piccolo had no grounds to sue because he and his wife had signed up for Disney’s online service, Disney+, and because they agreed to the service contract, the company is absolved from being held to account for any damages the man might file against them.
Disney’s legal team claims that signing onto the Disney+ contract means that all future disputes with the company must be decided through a binding, third-party arbitration process.
Disney further claimed that even if a potential steaming customer only signs up for the trial period and does not follow through by paying for the service, they have “forever waived the right to a jury trial enjoyed by them and any future Estate to which they are associated.”
Piccolo’s lawyers, though, called the Disney tactic absurd.
“The notion that terms agreed to by a consumer when creating a Disney+ free trial account would forever bar that consumer’s right to a jury trial in any dispute with any Disney affiliate or subsidiary, is so outrageously unreasonable and unfair as to shock the judicial conscience, and this Court should not enforce such an agreement,” Piccolo’s lawyers exclaimed.
The lawyers added that it is ridiculous to assume that signing up for an Internet streaming service could mean that Disney is absolved of any responsibilities for something it may have done wrong to a customer.
The aggrieved husband said in his lawsuit that his wife had a very specific conversation with the bar staff about her nut and dairy allergies and assumed that they had understood her medical issue and would prepare her food to her needs. However, that ended up not being the case and she perished from her allergies to the food she ate there.
The next court date for this case is set for October 2 in an Orange County, Florida, court.
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