new york
CNN
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A man suing Walt Disney Parks and Resorts for the wrongful death of his wife is facing a new legal hurdle: Disney is trying to dismiss the lawsuit and send it to arbitration because the man subscribed to Disney+ years ago.
According to court documents, Disney is seeking to dismiss a $50,000 lawsuit against plaintiff Jeffrey Piccolo because he signed up for a one-month trial of the streaming service Disney+ in 2019. The trial would require trial users to arbitrate all disputes with Disney. The company’s lawyers also argue that because Piccolo used the Walt Disney Parks website to purchase tickets to Epcot Center, Disney is immune from a lawsuit from the heirs of Piccolo’s late wife, Kanokporn Tang-suan, who died from a severe food allergic reaction.
In legal filings responding to Disney’s claims, Piccolo’s lawyer, Brian Denney, called Disney’s arguments “outrageous” and said the notion that signing up for a free trial of Disney+ would “preclude customers’ right to a jury trial in a lawsuit against any of Disney’s affiliates or subsidiaries” was “so outrageous and unfair as to shock the judicial conscience.”
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts “seeks to expressly bar 150 million Disney+ subscribers from litigating wrongful death actions before a jury, even if the facts of the case are completely unrelated to Disney+,” Denney wrote in court papers in opposition.
Piccolo is seeking more than $50,000 in damages under Florida’s wrongful death statute, as well as damages for emotional distress, loss of companionship and protection, loss of income, medical and funeral expenses.
Disney did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.
In October 2023, Kanokpong Tangxuan, her husband Jeffrey Piccolo, and Piccolo’s mother dined at Raglan Road Irish Pub in Disney Springs at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. According to the lawsuit, they chose to dine at the restaurant because they believed it had proper safety precautions in place by not serving dairy or nuts due to Tangxuan’s allergies.
The waiter assured the couple that certain dishes could be made allergy-free, and they confirmed this “several more times,” according to the lawsuit. She also ordered vegan fritters, scallops, onion rings and vegan shepherd’s pie.
Some of the dishes that were brought to her were not labeled as allergen-free, but the waiter again assured her they were allergen-free. But after dinner, Tang Xuan, 42, went shopping in the Disney Springs area and “began to suffer a severe, acute allergic reaction,” according to the lawsuit.
Despite having self-administered an EpiPen, Thanh Xuan died of “anaphylaxis caused by elevated levels of dairy and nuts in her system,” according to the medical examiner’s findings, according to the lawsuit.
–CNN’s Lamisha Maruf and Maria Sole Campinoti contributed to this report.
