Disney is trying to get a wrongful death lawsuit filed by a New York University doctor’s grieving husband tossed — because he signed up for the Disney+ streaming service years earlier, court papers said.
Kanokporn Tangsuan’s bereaved husband Jeffrey Piccolo is currently suing the theme park juggernaut claiming that she suffered a fatal allergic reaction shortly after eating at a Disney Springs restaurant in Florida last October.
But Disney is now claiming the $50,000 suit should be moved out of the courts because Piccolo agreed to arbitrate all disputes with the company when he first signed up for a one-month trial of the Disney+ streaming service back in 2019, court documents charge.
Piccolo’s attorneys, on their part, have slammed Disney’s latest motion as “preposterous” and “outrageously unreasonable.”
In the May 31 motion filed in Orange County, Fla. circuit court, Disney argued that the Disney+ subscriber agreement Piccolo signed years earlier on his PlayStation called for any dispute — with the exception of small claims — to be “resolved by individual binding arbitration.”
The company added that Piccolo agreed to similar language when he then used the “My Disney Experience” app to buy tickets to visit the Epcot theme park in September last year — a month before the ill-fated trip.
Disney has argued that both agreements required Piccolo to consent to the arbitration language before purchasing, the court filings claim.
Piccolo’s lawyers have since fired back, insisting in an Aug. 2 motion that Disney’s argument is “fatally flawed.”
“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,” the lawyers wrote.
They also argue that Piccolo filed the wrongful death suit as the “personal representative of the estate of Kanokporn Tangsuan” and not on behalf of himself.
Tangsuan, 42, died of a severe allergic reaction known as anaphylaxis just hours after dining at the Raglan Road Irish Pub and Restaurant with her husband back on Oct. 5, the original complaint said.
The physician, who had worked Manhattan’s NYU Langone hospital, had repeatedly stressed to wait staff that she had nut and dairy allergies when she ordered scallops, onion rings, broccoli and corn fritters, according to the filing.
Soon after leaving the restaurant, Tangsuan started experiencing difficulty breathing and collapsed, court papers charge.
Even though an epi-pen was immediately administered to her, she died at a local hospital, the lawsuit said.
Piccolo is seeking more than $50,000 in damages under Florida’s wrongful death act, in addition to mental pain and suffering, loss of income and funeral expenses.
The Post reached out to both Disney and Piccolo’s attorneys for comment.
https://nypost.com/2024/08/13/us-ne...h-suit-tossed-because-of-disney-subscription/ (Archive)
