Disney will no longer try to avoid a courtroom trial in the lawsuit over a woman’s fatal allergic reaction. The entertainment giant has dropped its bid to use the fine print in the terms of its Disney+ streaming service to force arbitration.
Instead, it will allow the case to go to trial, according to a company executive. “We’ve decided to waive our right to arbitration and have the matter proceed in court,” Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney Experiences, says in a statement.
Jeffrey Piccolo names Walt Disney Parks and Resorts as one of three defendants in a wrongful death lawsuit that he filed on his wife’s behalf in February 2024. Dr. Kanokporn (Amy) Tangsuan, a New York physician, died of a severe allergic reaction on October 5, 2023. The 42-year-old was allergic to dairy and nuts.
The lawsuit says Tangsuan’s fatal reaction was triggered by food she ate at the Raglan Road Irish pub in the Disney Springs shopping and dining complex. The lawsuit, accuses Raglan Road and its owner The Great Irish Pubs, Inc., as well as Disney Parks and Resorts, of negligence.
Disney & Piccolo Suit Controversy
In a motion filed in May 2024, Disney had argued that Piccolo forfeited his rights to a jury trial. The reason? He had signed up for a Disney+ trial subscription back in 2019. The streaming service’s terms mandate that all disputes with the company would be decided through arbitration, Disney’s motion stated. Disney says Piccolo agreed to similar terms when he purchased tickets online to the Epcot theme park in 2023.
Piccolo’s attorneys slammed Disney’s argument as “outrageously unreasonable” in their 123-page response to the motion, filed in August 2024.
Florida-based firm Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley is representing Piccolo in the lawsuit, which seeks damages in excess of $50,000. Disney “is explicitly seeking to bar its 150 million Disney+ subscribers from ever prosecuting a wrongful death case against it in front of a jury,” their response to that motion says.
A barrage of headlines followed Disney’s legal tactic that, because he’d accepted Disney+ terms, a grieving widower couldn’t sue. Instead, the company’s attorney’s said Piccolo could only take his dispute to arbitration, before a third-party mediator.
Disney clearly heard the backlash, and has changed its approach. “With such unique circumstances as the ones in this case, we believe this situation warrants a sensitive approach to expedite a resolution for the family who have experienced such a painful loss,” D’Amaro says.
Pub Meal, Then Fatal Reaction
The night of her fatal reaction, Tangsuan, her husband, and his mother Jackie Piccolo went to the Raglan Road pub. The Long Island, New York couple clearly communicated to staff about Tangsuan’s severe allergies, according to Piccolo’s lawsuit.
It says they told their server multiple times about Tangsuan’s serious allergies to dairy and nuts, and were assured that her meal would be prepared free of her allergens. When the meal arrived, they double-checked, and were told her food was free of nuts and dairy, the complaint says.
Tangsuan, an NYU Langone hospital physician, and her mother-in-law went out into the Disney Springs shopping complex after dinner, heading into separate shops. Tangsuan began experiencing an anaphylactic reaction about 45 minutes after her meal.
When she entered Planet Hollywood, she was having difficulty breathing and self-administered her epinephrine auto-injector. The lawsuit says she soon collapsed. A bystander called 911 and when Piccolo and his mother learned of the reaction, they raced to the hospital. They were informed that Tangsuan had died.
Disney initially responded to questions about its stance on suing by saying the case should involve the restaurant, but not Disney. However, Piccolo’s attorneys claim Disney, which owns the Disney Springs complex, has a responsibility for the food allergy practices of Raglan Road.
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