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Lawyers on behalf of Disney are claiming that Jeffrey Piccolo waived his right to a trial after he signed up for a free Disney+ trial years ago. This came after Jeffrey Piccolo’s wife, Dr Kanokporn Tangsuan, died in a hospital after suffering an allergic reaction sustained at a restaurant at Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
The incident occurred in 2023 and the lawsuit filed on behalf of Jeffrey Piccolo claims the Disney World restaurant did not take enough care to prevent contamination of his wife’s food despite being alerted repeatedly about the severity of her allergies to nuts and dairy. While eating, she suffered an allergic attack and later died at a hospital and the medical examiner determined the cause of death was “as a result of anaphylaxis due to elevated levels of dairy and nut in her system.”
According to BBC News, Jeffrey filed a lawsuit seeking “a sum in excess of $50,000 plus legal costs” but lawyers on behalf of Disney see things differently…
They are claiming that because Jeffrey Piccolo signed up for a free Disney+ trial all the way back in 2019, he waived his right to a trial against Disney. In the Disney+ Terms of Use, it states that any disputes with The Mouse Company must be resolved through out-of-court arbitration.
How things play out from here will be interesting. Lawyers for Jeffrey Piccolo are calling this strategy from Disney “preposterous” and “inane” and claiming it “borders on the surreal” that Disney would argue a free month-long trial four years prior for an online streaming service would preclude someone suing over the death of their spouse after they repeatedly alerted the restaurant of the severity of their issues.
Interestingly, his lawyers are now able to claim that he signed up for that Disney+ trial on his own behalf and this lawsuit is over his wife’s death and thus the waving of rights does not extend to her.
Lawyer Ernest Aduwa told the BBC “Disney is pushing the envelope of contract law. The courts 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. Disney’s argument that accepting their terms and conditions for one product covers all interactions with that company is novel and potentially far reaching.”
If this strategy from Disney proves to be successful, it is easy to envision how this is concerning for everyone on earth who has signed a waiver at some point…
A judge in my home state of Florida is set to hear this Disney’s argument that this should go to arbitration in October so it will be several months still before we learn if Disney’s strategy proves successful or not.