Disney is fighting back with a wrongful-death lawsuit, hoping to get it dismissed because of the terms and conditions the plaintiff agreed to when he signed up for the Disney+ streaming service.
In February, Jeffrey Piccolo filed a $50,000 lawsuit against Disney after his wife, Dr. Kanokporn Tangsuan, a physician at NYU’s Langone Hospital, died last year. Court documents claim Tangsuan suffered a fatal allergic reaction after eating at the Disney Springs restaurant.
However, a new legal filing by Disney claims that the lawsuit should be dismissed because Piccolo signed up for a one-month trial of Disney+ back in 2019 — and the contract requires users to arbitrate any disputes with the company.
According to court documents, the terms Piccolo agreed to when buying tickets to the 2023 theme park also protect the company from his lawsuit.
Piccolo’s lawyers quickly shut down the lawsuit, arguing in a motion filed Aug. 2 that Disney’s argument is “preposterous” and “fatally flawed.”
“The idea that the 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 unconscionably unreasonable and unfair that it shocks the judicial conscience, and this court should not enforce such an agreement,” the lawyers said.
Doctor with severe allergy dies after Disney World restaurant allegedly ‘guaranteed’ free of allergens: lawsuit
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The lawyers also claim that Piccolo agreed to those terms on his own behalf, not on behalf of his wife or her estate, when he clicked “agree and continue” on the Disney+ sign-up page.
A hearing for this case is currently scheduled for October 2.
Piccolo’s lawsuit details Tangsuan’s death on Oct. 5, 2023. Court documents say she dined at the Raglan Road Irish Pub in the Disney Springs area of the park and allegedly told the waiter she had severe dairy and nut allergies, asking for more confirmation that various items on the menu could be served without allergens.
According to the documents, after the waiter allegedly confirmed that the meal was allergen-free, Tangsuan ate the meal. She suffered a severe allergic reaction and ended up dying later in hospital. Her cause of death was “as a result of anaphylaxis due to the elevated levels of dairy and tree nuts in her body,” the lawsuit states.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education