Disney files to move wrongful death suit to binding arbitration: man had subscribed to Disney+!

[thewayne]

*SMH*

This is a tragedy and Disney is making it worse and worse. A man and his wife are at Disneyworld and have dinner at one of their restaurants. The woman, Dr. Kanokporn Tangsuan, had severe dairy and nut allergies. She expressed this problem to their waiter in detailed terms and was told that their kitchen was quite capable of handling this matter.

She died hours later of anaphylaxis. She administered an epi-pen to herself that she kept on-hand, but it wasn't enough. Sounds to me like she was given a standard dish of whatever it was she was having, rather than a custom one made special.

Her husband, Jeffrey Piccolo, is suing on behalf of the estate. And Disney is saying that because he had a trial subscription to Disney+ streaming service for one month, four years prior, that he is bound by said TOS that any legal matters have to be decided in binding arbitration. Likewise, the TOS for the Disney smartphone app has similar binding arbitration clauses.

While it is not referenced in this article, the amount Disney is fighting over? Piccolo was suing for $50,000. Basically to cover funeral costs and such.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/08/disney-fighting-restaurant-death-suit-with-disney-terms-absurd-lawyer-says/

Comments

[murakozi]

You'd think 50K would be chump change to Disney.

[thewayne]

It is!  They've probably spent about that much on attorney fees already!

[disneydream06]

We all know I am a huge Disney fan, and even I know that is beyond LAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Prediction, he's suing for $50,000 and will receive millions. :o
Hugs, Jon

[thewayne]

I think a arbiter would look at this, look at the Disney attorneys and say 'You've got to be kidding me'.

[disneydream06]

I hope that's what our arbiter, whenever they finally settle on one, says to my boss about our contract.
UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[frith]

It's worse than that. Disney states that the restaurant in question is run by an independent entity, that they just rent out the space and are not responsible for the actions of the tenant. So, not only has Piccolo "agreed" to not sue Disney, they will probably say he can't sue them as they weren't the negligent party.

The take away lesson is: define all your employees and modular parts as "independent contractors" and "tenants" and avoid any liability. The streaming service fine-print is just an extra layer of legal protection just in case.

[thewayne]

Yeah, I saw that later in the article.  Layer upon layer of trying to dodge any sort of responsibility.  Soon all Disney employees will be contractors and no one will directly work for the Mouse.  Thanks for pointing it out!

[frith]

You're welcome. ^_^ This whole employees-as-subcontractors thing peeves Cory Doctorow a lot, so I latched onto that detail.

[thewayne]

It's American capitalism at its finest: privatize the profits, socialize the costs.  Drive all the peons into near bankruptcy and keep them there.

[silveradept]

This feels like the kind of thing that even if Disney prevails in court on this, someone with the appropriate authority should punish Disney for even doing this in the first place. Or the arbitrator should look at what happened here and say "You got precedent, but you're going to pay for that" and make sure Disney realizes they shouldn't do that again.

[richardf8]

I looked at this. The case for letting it go to trial is strong. The Disney+ ToS should not bind the Estate.

The case itself - I don't know that it's very strong. She believed the server in spite of the lack of Allergen Free flags on the item. The defense is that the kitchen had communicated the danger to the diners and they should have believed that over the server.

[thewayne]

Considering the estate didn't exist before the husband agreed to the ToS, yes.  Just a major sucky situation all around.  Makes me so glad that I was raised back in a 'go outside and get dirty' environment when I was a kid and food allergies weren't much of a thing.

[halfshellvenus]

Oh, geez. That poor couple!

I agree, Disney is being pure ass about this. I hope the husband gets some small measure of justice.