Disney's Legal Strategy in Wrongful Death Lawsuit Questioned

Disney has employed a controversial legal strategy to avoid a jury trial for a wrongful death lawsuit. Disney claims that both the plaintiff and the other subscribers of Disney+ have accepted an agreement to arbitrate, which encompasses all legal disputes, including the present case.

In October 2023, Dr. Kanokporn Tangsuan, the wife of the plaintiff Jeffrey Piccolo, died from an allergic reaction in a Disney springs restaurant in Walt Disney world resort. The woman’s severe nut and dairy allergies were known to all employees, and she had communicated them to the restaurant’s staff who had assured her the meal was safe for consumption. Shortly after the dinner, she fell into anaphylactic shock and was dead three hours later.

Disney’s willingness to dismiss the case based on the allegations of the agreement to arbitrate appears both heavily unethical and legally dubious. The validity of this defense may be critical for over 150 million Disney+ subscribers around the world. In fact, experts and Piccolo’s lawyers have already condemned Disney’s move as improperly over-broad and loosely connected with the incident.