Lawsuit – Page 5 – A Walk With The Mouse

Judge DISMISSES Lawsuit Against Ron DeSantis Over Reedy Creek Dissolution

Posted on May 12, 2022May 12, 2022 by Mathew Corn Disney Parks, Uncategorized

On May 4, a lawsuit was filed against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on behalf of some taxpayers who reside in Osceola County and Orange County. The lawsuit claimed that Governor DeSantis had violated the rights of the taxpayers and would cause them financial injury with the dissolution of the Reedy Creek Improvement Act. The Reedy Creek Improvement act allows Disney to act as its own government and, if dissolved, the costs typically incurred by Reedy Creek would be passed on to the taxpayers in the aforementioned counties.

When the lawsuit was filed, it was stated that the Plaintiffs in the case were not seeking monetary damages — they simply wanted to prevent the termination of the Reedy Creek Improvement Act. As quickly as the lawsuit was filed, it seems to have been dismissed just as quickly. On May 10, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit against Governor DeSantis.

The Orlando Sentinel reported on the dismissal, saying:

In her order, U.S. District Court Judge Cecilia Altonaga, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote that the suit was dismissed for several reasons, including the federal court’s lack of standing over state issues and because the law does not go into effect until July 2023.
Altonaga wrote that the three plaintiffs, Michael and Edward Foronda of Kissimmee and Vivian Gorsky of Orange County, “do not plausibly allege they have suffered any concrete injury as a result of the alleged violation of Disney’s First Amendment rights, and nothing in the Complaint shows Plaintiffs have a close relationship with Disney.”
The new law, she wrote, “does not apply to them, they do not allege direct harm as a result of the challenged law, and they do not plausibly allege any credible threat of direct harm in the future.”
Their claim to standing in the case, she wrote, was that the elimination of the district “might result in financial harm to Plaintiffs by virtue of a tax increase that has not yet been enacted. That indirect and highly speculative alleged injury cannot support federal jurisdiction. … Again — it is worth emphasizing — the bill does not apply to Plaintiffs at all.”

Although the federal judge has dismissed the original filing, William Sanchez — the Miami lawyer who filed the original suit on behalf of the Plaintiffs — said that this was only the beginning of a long fight. He said that he plans to refile the suit no later than Monday, May 16.

Florida law currently states that, if Reedy Creek is dissolved, its debts would be passed on to the taxpayers. Those debts are currently estimated to be over $1 billion. Governor DeSantis has told his constituents that they will not see an increase in their taxes if Reedy Creek ceases to exist, but he has not yet released details on how he will be able to circumvent the law.

Petition to Bring Johnny Depp Back to ‘Pirates’ Franchise Continues

Posted on May 11, 2022May 11, 2022 by Mathew Corn Uncategorized

For weeks, Disney fans across the world have been watching and reading the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard trial. The trial began on April 11, with Depp suing Heard for $50 million, saying that she ruined his reputation and cost him work because she accused him of domestic abuse in a 2018 OpEd. Heard is countersuing Depp for $100 million.

While the actual court is still hearing testimony and has not made its decision yet, the court of public opinion has made itself loud and clear. Many people have accused his ex-wife, Amber Heard, of lying, perjuring herself, and acting during her testimony. She has also been accused of quoting lines from movies during her testimony and pretending they are things she and Depp said to each other.

During the trial, Depp and others who have testified on his behalf have claimed that the Washington Post OpEd was part of the reason Disney split with Depp and will no longer work with him on the popular Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Depp has claimed that he had a verbal agreement in place to get paid $22 million for the sixth film for his role as Captain Jack Sparrow in the franchise, but that fell apart after the OpEd came out. Disney has also announced a new Pirates film is in the works with Margot Robbie in the starring role.

Anger at Heard has grown as the trial has progressed, and a Change.org petition to bring Depp back into the Pirates fold has seen a new fire. In just the past few days, the petition — which was started 2 years ago — has seen more than 100,000 signatures added to it. In part, the petition reads:

Amber Heard ruined Johnny Depp’s life as well as career. Johnny Depp has always been one of the greatest actors ever since he started acting around the age of 21. This man NEVER disappoints when he makes a movie, so why continue to keep him from doing Pirates of the Caribbean?? That movie is nothing without him! Please sign this petition to help Johnny Depp get back to what he enjoys and does best. If men get ridiculed for hitting women, and lose their jobs/career, then that’s exactly what should be happening to Amber Heard. She is currently working on the 2nd Aqua-man and she should have been dropped from that movie and everything else she is working on as that is not fair to let her continue to have her life when she ruined someone else’s.
Johnny Depp deserves his life back the way it was before Amber Heard came along, because no actor or actress could ever say this man is not an amazing actor. If you were falsely accused of something you did not do, then there’s proof you didn’t do it and you still were treated like a bad person, wouldn’t you want Justice??

The trial is expected to last a few more weeks at a minimum. Depp’s testimony along lasted for nearly a month, and Heard only began her own testimony last week. While the trial seems to be improving Depp’s image, it does not seem to be helping Heard’s. According to reports, Heard’s part in the new Aquaman movie has been cut to just 10 minutes as outrage grows and fans demand she be fired from the franchise.

Judge DENIES Disney’s Claim to Dismiss $5 Million Magic Key Lawsuit

Posted on May 9, 2022May 9, 2022 by Mathew Corn Disney Parks

In January 2021, Disneyland Resort Guests learned that Disney would be getting rid of their much-beloved Annual Passes. Those Annual Passes would be replaced with new Magic Keys. When they were introduced in August 2021, there were four levels of Magic Keys — Dream Key, Believe Key, Enchant Key, and Imagine Key. The Imagine Key was, and still is, only available to Southern California Residents, and only the top-tier Dream Key has no blackout dates — at least, that’s what Guests were told.

Not long after purchasing their Dream Keys, Guests learned that “no blackout days” didn’t mean much. Because you need reservations to visit both Disneyland and Disney California Adventure and there are so many Magic Key Holders, reservations filled up incredibly quickly. Guests who thought they would be able to go whenever they wanted — as they could with their old Signature Annual Passes — found themselves unable to make reservations to visit the Happiest Place On Earth for weeks at a time.

The struggle to book reservations with the top-tier Dream Key frustrated many Guests. One woman was so frustrated that she filed a lawsuit against Disney, claiming that the company engaged in deceptive practices when it said that there would be no blackout dates. The lawsuit claims that Magic Key Holders were made “second-class ticket holders” because of the limited number of reservations available to Key Holders. Limiting the number of reservations artificially limits the number of Key Holders that can visit each day.

The lawsuit — which was filed on November 9, 2021 — was originally filed with the Orange County Superior Court, but was moved to a U.S. District Court because the Disney Parks offices are headquartered in Florida and the Plaintiff is in California. When the case was filed, Plaintiff said that they hoped to make the case a class-action one. Disney, as with all lawsuits, filed to have the case dismissed.

Unfortunately for Disney, a judge has now denied Disney’s motion for dismissal. The judge wrote the following in their decision:

Here, there are two reasonable interpretations of the “subject to availability” limitation: Plaintiff’s version, which construes the limitation as barring Dream Key Pass holders from making a reservation only when reservations to the park in general are unavailable; and Defendant’s version, which construes the availability limitation as something different and additional to the capacity limitation. As such, the Court finds that the Plaintiff has pled fact sufficient to find that the term “subject to availability” is capable of more than one reasonable construction and is thus ambiguous.
Accordingly, the Court DENIES Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss Plaintiff’s claim for breach of contract.

Disney has been dealing with a number of Key Holder complaints since Magic Keys first went on sale. Many Dream Key Holders feel that they are not getting what they are paying for if they are unable to go to the theme parks when they want to. The reservation system only came into place when the Parks reopened after the pandemic, and they have not been a very popular move. Even though people aren’t fans of making Park reservations, Disney officials have said that they are not going anywhere any time soon.

Family of Tyre Sampson files wrongful death suit

Posted on April 26, 2022April 26, 2022 by Mathew Corn Uncategorized

As expected, the family of a teen who fell to his death at an Orlando amusement park in March has filed suit in Orange County, Florida.

According to ClickOrlando, attorney Michael Haggard, who represents Tyre Sampson‘s mother, Nekia Dodd, formally filed a lawsuit against the ride‘s operators in Orange County Court this morning. Monday. The suit was filed in civil court.

Sampson, age 14, died on Thursday night, March 24, after falling from the Orlando FreeFall drop tower attraction at Orlando’s ICON Park on International Drive.

Investigation Into 14-Year-Old's Death at Florida's Icon Park Focuses on Safety Harness - WSJ

The lawsuit filed on Monday morning in Orange County names three entities at fault in the death of Tyre Sampson: Funtime Thrill Rides, which manufactured the Orlando FreeFall drop tower ride, Slingshot Group, which is the owner and operator in Florida, and ICON Park, which is the company who leased the space for the drop tower ride.

The suit filed alleges that operators of the drop tower ride should have known that those riding the attraction could be “subject to unreasonably dangerous and foreseeable risks and that serious injury and death of the occupants in the ride could result.”

The suit also notes that the Orlando FreeFall ride had no seatbelts and that the total cost to outfit all of the seats on the ride with seatbelts would be only $600.

According to the lawsuit filed, the manufacturer, FunTime Thrill Rides, and the operator, Slingshot Group, should have made sure of the following:

There were visible warnings for riders about height and weight restrictions
The ride should not have been able to function if all riders were not properly secured
No one should have been able to manipulate or adjust proximity sensors
A monitoring system should have been installed to make sure all rider restraints were properly secured
A mechanism should have been installed to stop the ride if a restraint was not properly secured
The lawsuit also states that the Orlando FreeFall drop tower ride could have been manufactured with safer alternative designs that would have yielded a reduced risk of riders coming out of their seats.

During a press conference last week led by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and its Commissioner Nikki Fried, a report from Quest Engineering, the forensics entity hired by the Department to assist in the investigation, was shared, which detailed findings about what led to Tyre Sampson falling from his seat and ultimately losing his life after riding the Orlando FreeFall drop tower ride.

According to the report, the ride operator at ICON Park made “manual adjustments” to two of the seats at the drop tower ride that rendered the attraction unsafe for riders.

Following the press conference, attorneys for Tyre Sampson‘s family said they would likely be taking legal action. Over the weekend, attorneys announced they’d be filing a wrongful death suit in Orange County civil court today.

At this time, no information about the amount of damages sought has been made public.

Disney Being Sued For $30K Over Scooter Injury

Posted on April 7, 2022April 7, 2022 by Mathew Corn Disney Parks

When it comes to electric scooters at Walt Disney World, there are two schools of thought. There are those who believe that people on scooters are often ignored by Guests who simply can’t pay attention. Then, there are those who believe that people in scooters think they own the road and drive however they want. If you have been to Disney, then you have probably seen someone cut in front of a scooter and narrowly avoid getting hit. On the flip side, you have probably seen someone driving a scooter recklessly and cutting people off, and almost using the scooter as a battering ram.

Scooters have been the cause of many an injury at Walt Disney World Resort, followed by many a lawsuit. Those lawsuits slowed down during the pandemic — for obvious reasons — but, with the increase in crowds, the lawsuits are coming back in full force. One of those lawsuits is coming from Texas resident, Jamie Pineda.

According to reports, Ms. Pineda claims that she was visiting Walt Disney World with her family on December 29, 2021. Ms. Pineda and her family were waiting in line for the Beauty and the Beast Sing-Along in the France Pavilion in EPCOT. Suddenly, a person on a scooter came up behind her and smashed into her, knocking her down. Ms. Pineda claims that the accident left her with a dislocated knee and a tear in her ankle.

Ms. Pineda’s lawyer said that Ms. Pineda’s theme park vacation was completely ruined when she was hit. She had to return to Texas to receive medical treatment and is still dealing with pain and suffering months later. The major parts of the lawsuit claim that Disney is responsible for Ms. Pineda’s injury because they let scooters get too close to Guests, they do not maintain enough order in crowds, and they did not help Ms. Pineda after she was hit.

Unfortunately for Disney, they are limited as to how it can manage scooters in its theme parks. There are federal and state guidelines that Disney has to follow when it comes to Guests with disabilities who are using scooters to get around. While things went well when the Parks were at strict capacity limits, things are getting more complicated now that the crowds are back and more people are using scooters to get around.

It is important to note that there is no training that comes with getting an electric scooter at a Disney Park. There are really only two things that are required: that the Guest is 18 years or older, and that they provide a photo ID.

When visiting a Park, it is always important to be aware of people in scooters, as well as Guests pushing strollers. If you see someone driving a scooter erratically and think that they are endangering other Guests, report your concerns to the nearest Cast Member. However, it is equally important to give scooters their needed space. Do not try to cut in front of one, and do not get too close, as you may not know which way the scooter is going. There are bad drivers everywhere, and Disney is no exception.