Last week RVtravel.com readers lashed out at Florida’s Disney World in response to a story we carried. Jeffrey Piccolo and his wife, Kanokporn Tangsuan, visited the Florida attraction last year. Tangsuan died after eating a meal in a restaurant located on Disney property. A medical examiner said she died of a reaction to food allergens from that meal—allergens that the couple’s waiter promised weren’t in the food.
Disney wanted the suit thrown out of court as the widower had signed up years prior for a free trial of Disney+ TV. The company claimed he’d agreed to arbitration—not a suit—by his sign-up. Now in the face of public outcry, Disney backpedals.
Backlash from RVtravel.com readers clear
RVtravel.com readers had plenty to say about Disney’s attempt at dodging the suit, little of it complimentary. Said one, “Walt Disney would roll over in his grave over all this!” Another added, “Gotta give those Disney lawyers credit for creativity. Maybe they should play weasels in the next Disney flick! Won’t work for squat though, it’ll just make the folks on the jury really mad.”
Several readers said they were swearing off future visits to the Mouse Kingdom. One wrote, “Come on, Disney, do what’s right! No Disney for me forever & I have a new granddaughter I wanted to take to Disney but won’t because this is just a horribly disgusting side of Disney that I would like to give it to God.”
Disney backpedals
Perhaps the public outcry has caused the company to rethink its position, as now Disney backpedals on their legal approach.
In a statement sent to news media outlet CNN on Monday, Josh D’Amaro, the chairman of Disney Experiences, said the company was waiving its right to arbitration.
“At Disney, we strive to put humanity above all other considerations. With such unique circumstances as the ones in this case, we believe this situation warrants a sensitive approach to expedite a resolution for the family who have experienced such a painful loss,” he said in the statement.
“As such, we’ve decided to waive our right to arbitration and have the matter proceed in court.”
Settle out of court?
Some may wonder why, if Disney truly puts “humanity above all considerations,” it doesn’t simply forget the whole lawsuit thing and quietly settle with Jeffrey Piccolo out of court. Maybe it will. Time will tell.
As a footnote, Piccolo’s lawsuit, filed in line with Florida’s Wrongful Death Act, was for $50,000. He may also seek damages for mental pain and suffering, loss of companionship and protection, loss of income, and medical and funeral expenses.
We’ll keep you posted.
##RVT1171b
Disney will take the case to court with their high priced lawyers and drag it out for years. All the while the family will incur huge expenses.
Disney is no different than any other big corporation. They do not care about anything but the bottom line.
By making any type of one time exception, they will leave themselves open to further litigation.
The only way to stop this type of greed is to let it hit all the major news outlets and hope people start to boycott Disney. Even a 10% drop in attendance will really hurt them.
Good points.
The court of public opinion can be powerful. Why have I only heard about this through rvtravel?
It was in the NY Times today on the front page. Disney is hurting.
Poor Walt Disney. He had such a different plan for his world of wonder.
I still do not know why Disney would want to take it to court. A jury surely would award more than Disney just settleing. ??? We went there the month that it opened. We parked within walking distance to the entrance and paid $7.++ a ticket with X number of rides included. I guess those were “the good old days”.
Thank you, Russ and Tina! 🙂 Hmm, … seems that the genie is out of the bottle and there is no way Disney can undo the damage their grandstanding caused. At best, it gets no worse. I will happily never darken a doorway to any of their parks or campgrounds. I wonder how this will end? Thanks again, have a great day, safe travels, and safe stays!
At their entrance ticket prices ($99 Per Person Per Day for their 4-day pass, multiplied by seven people comes to $700 per day or $2800), I can’t even afford to think about taking the family to Disney Land/Disney World. Add in round trip travel costs, hotel rooms, rental car – I don’t see how the average family can do it. We ain’t gonna…
Note that Disney STILL thinks an arbitration clause in a years old document for a trial of Disney+ means ANYTHING Disney is under that contract!!!
These turds do NOT want that tested in court, so out of the graciousness of their hearts, they “wave” their arbitration “rights.”
What heroes. 🙄
Hi, Mikal. That just reminded me of something that happened about 30 years ago. A gal’s car was hit on a road near me on purpose by an uninsured ex-boyfriend. Her insurance company (which I also had at the time) wouldn’t cover the damage to her car because it wasn’t an “accident,” it was done “intentionally.” Still makes me mad to think about what some companies will do to weasel out of their responsibility. Sheesh! I immediately changed insurers. Have a good night. 😀 –Diane
I just bought a piece of vacant wooded property that neighbors two junk cars “might” be on. Erie’s insurance agent won’t allow me to add it to my homeowners insurance policy because of the cars. I planned on finding out if they were on my property and if were, have them removed anyway. Insurance companies are getting to big for their britches. In the case of Disney, it’s probably their insurance company that wanted to arbitrate. $50,000. is just the starting amount in some states. I see it in our newspaper all the time for lawsuits.
Good luck with your property and neighbor’s junk car situation, Bob. That sounds weird to me, but what do I know? Have a great day. 😀 –Diane
“Insurance companies are getting too big for their britches.”
Yes. And some people wonder why what happened in NYC a couple weeks ago, went down.
That is going to be the most expensive $50,000.00 someone tried to duck paying.
The Disney management team doesn’t handle every single grievance levied against the enterprise, they pay lawyers to look after that stuff.
So the Disney lawyers floated a weak defense that even the most ignorant of judges would reject and when its absurdity became painfully apparent, they took it back.
Stupid defenses is not exclusive to Disney nor uncommon to humanity.
Nobody mentioned that Disney is 57% owned by Shanghai Shendi Group, a Chinese company? Are we so naive as to believe that China cares an iota about America other than its intellectual property, and money? Seriously.
When you’re genetically deficient you should not be eating the cooking from a stranger. Personal Responsibility is Dead in the USA.