Disney wants to dismiss wrongful death lawsuit because widower bought an Epcot ticket and had Disney+

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CNN
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A man suing Walt Disney Parks and Resorts over 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 he signed up for Disney+ years ago.

According to court documents, the company is seeking to dismiss the $50,000 lawsuit because plaintiff Jeffrey Piccolo signed up for a one-month trial of the Disney+ streaming service in 2019, which requires trial users to resolve any disputes with the company themselves.

The company's lawyers also claim that Disney is protected from a lawsuit from the estate of Piccolo's late wife, Kanokporn Tangsuan, who died from complications of a severe food allergy, because Piccolo used the Walt Disney Parks website to purchase tickets to Epcot Center.

In a filing responding to Disney's allegations, Piccolo attorney Brian Denney called Disney's reasoning “absurd” and said the notion that signing up for a free trial of Disney+ would deny a customer the right to a jury trial “at any Disney affiliate or subsidiary” was so outrageously unreasonable and unfair that it shocks the judicial conscience.

Walt Disney Parks and Resort “is expressly seeking to prevent its 150 million Disney+ subscribers from ever pursuing a wrongful death case before a jury against the company, even if the facts of the case have nothing to do with Disney+,” Denney wrote in his response in court documents.

Piccolo is seeking over $50,000 in damages under the Florida Wrongful Death Act, as well as damages for emotional pain and suffering, loss of companionship and protection, loss of income, and medical and funeral expenses.

“We are deeply saddened by the family's loss and understand their grief,” a Disney spokesperson said Wednesday. “Because this restaurant is neither owned nor operated by Disney, we are simply defending ourselves against the plaintiff's attorney's attempt to include us in his lawsuit against the restaurant.”

In October 2023, Kanokporn Tangsuan, her husband Jeffrey Piccolo, and Piccolo's mother dined at Raglan Road Irish Pub in Disney Springs, part of the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. They chose the restaurant, the lawsuit says, because they believed it would have adequate safety precautions in place to not serve Tangsuan dairy and nuts due to her allergies.

The waiter guaranteed the couple that certain dishes could be prepared allergen-free, which the two confirmed “several times,” according to the lawsuit. ordered a vegan donut, scallops, onion rings and a vegan shepherd's pie.

Although some of the food delivered was missing the “allergen-free” label, the waiter again assured them that the food was allergen-free. After dinner, however, Tangsuan, 42, went shopping in the Disney Springs area and began “suffering a severe, acute allergic reaction,” according to the lawsuit.

Despite administering an EpiPen to herself, Tangsuan died of “anaphylactic erection due to elevated levels of dairy and nuts in her body,” according to the lawsuit, which is based on a coroner's investigation.

— CNN's Ramishah Maruf and Maria Sole Campinoti contributed to this report.