Passengers Sue Disney Cruise Line Claiming They Contracted COVID-19 on Ship

Posted on by Mathew Corn Uncategorized

While the Disney Cruise Line remains unavailable to Disney travelers due to COVID-19, there is some water stirring with Disney and federal courts. Just before Disney Cruise Line docked in March 2020, it seems some passengers believe they contracted COVID-19 on the ship and now want compensation.

As reported by OrlandoSentinel: “Disney Cruise Line is facing four federal lawsuits from Utah and Arizona tourists who claim they contracted the coronavirus while on board the Disney Fantasy ship last March, just before the cruise business docked during the pandemic. The tourists said they contracted the virus while on board and began feeling sick, according to the four lawsuits filed March 2 in federal court’s Orlando division that each seek unspecified damages.”

A Disney Cruise Line spokeswoman denied the lawsuits’ allegations: “We disagree with the allegations and will respond to them in court. No guests or Crew reported symptoms of Covid-19 while aboard the Disney Fantasy during the March 7, 2020, sailing,” Cynthia Martinez said in a statement. “Disney Cruise Line communicated health and safety information with guests in advance of and during their sailing and had numerous protocols in place at the time.”

“The lawsuits accused Disney of refusing to let passengers cancel or reschedule their cruises even if they had “autoimmune diseases and compromised health conditions,” so they were “left without any option” to go on their March 7-14, 2020 trip. According to a Disney email sent to passengers, guests were allowed to change their reservation up until the day before embarkation to receive a 100% cruise credit.”

To read more details about this lawsuit against Disney Cruise Line, visit OrlandoSentinel. Disney Cruise Line has been shut down for over a year now with hopes of setting sail on the big blue once again this summer.

Passengers Suing Disney Cruise Line Claim They Caught COVID-19 on Cruise Last Year

Posted on by Mathew Corn Uncategorized

Multiple passengers from Utah and Arizona are suing Disney Cruise Line, claiming they caught COVID-19 while onboard the Disney Fantasy in March 2020, before cruises were paused.

In fall 2019, the Disney Magic sails to Bermuda, Bahamas and Canada from New York, followed by Bahamian and Caribbean voyages from Miami. Aboard the Disney Magic, guests can experience new spaces and experiences, including dining at Rapunzel’s Royal Table. (Matt Stroshane, photographer)

The passengers filed four lawsuits seeking unspecified damages on March 2, 2021, in federal court’s Orlando division. According to the lawsuits, Disney did not allow the passengers to cancel or reschedule their cruises even if they had “autoimmune diseases or compromised health conditions” leaving them “without any option” but to go on their March 2020 trip.

“Disney continued to allow passengers … to eat in buffets settings, provide group entertainment activities aboard the vessel (such as dancing) and otherwise allowed passengers to fully participate in the subject cruise as if there was no COVID-19 outbreak or threat thereof aboard the vessel,” the lawsuits state.

The plaintiffs are Arizona residents Judy Parkin and Krystal Skinner and Utah residents Kailee Taylor and Scott and Jana Olsen. They all retained the same Miami law firm.

The passengers all claim they contracted the virus while on board their March 7 through 14 sailing. It was on March 8, 2020, that the U.S. Department of State recommended Americans not travel on cruise ships.

Scott and Jana Olson took their child, who has an autoimmune disease, to a hospital ICU on March 16, 2020 with a high fever and difficulty breathing. The child tested positive for COVID-19 on May 1, and the parents also tested positive. Their lawsuit stated, “Plaintiffs feared for their own lives as well as the lives of each other.”

Krystal Skinner’s child, who also has an autoimmune disorder, felt body aches, fever, chills, and a cough on the cruise. Her other child, who has asthma, had migraines, fever, and difficulty breathing. Skinner herself also felt sick on board and all three tested positive for COVID-19 on April 15.

The lawsuits outline how there were early concerns about COVID-19 outbreaks on cruises, including on Carnival’s Diamond Princess, which had almost 700 cases in early February and quarantined for two weeks at Yokohama Harbor in Japan.

Neither Disney Cruise Line nor the passengers’ attornies provided comment to Orlando Sentinel.

Disney Cruise Line has cancelled all scheduled sailings through Mary 2021, and some sailings even further out.

Former Disney Accountant Suing the Walt Disney Company in Federal Court

Posted on by Mathew Corn Uncategorized

Via wdwnt.com

Sandra Kuba, a former Walt Disney Company senior financial analyst who had previously filed complaints about the company to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, is now suing the Walt Disney Company.

Kuba has filed a federal lawsuit against Burbank, California-based Disney Financial Services on Tuesday on accusations that she was fired after she raised red flags on the company’s accounting practices. In the lawsuit, Kuba seeks unspecified damages, including back pay and attorney’s fees, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

Kuba previously filed a series of complaints to the SEC as well as a whistleblower-retaliation complaint with the Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Disney claims that Kuba was fired because “she displayed a pattern of workplace complaints against co-workers without a reasonable basis for doing so, in a manner that was inappropriate, disruptive and in bad faith.”

The new federal lawsuit reveals that Kuba believed Disney was manipulating its books. Kuba said she noticed revenue reported several times for the same transaction and “nonsense entries that camouflaged the altered transactions flow created by Financial Systems.” The department that runs Disney’s internal control and fraud investigation added more “guest inconvenience promotion charge codes” instead of auditing the figures, which resulted in recorded revenue that did not exist and needed to be reversed,” Kuba said in the lawsuit.

“On a number of occasions throughout her career, (Kuba) reported her concerns about Disney’s policies, practices, and procedures that she genuinely and reasonably believed were unethical, improper or illegal to Disney’s management,” the lawsuit states. “Each time, (Kuba) suffered from harassment, hostility, and retaliation as a result.”

Kuba filed the SEC whistleblower complaint in August 2017, while she was out on medical leave. When she returned back to work the following month, she was fired. She then filed a Human Resources retaliation complaint with the company.

Kuba believes that “Disney terminated her employment as a direct result of both her internal complaints and her SEC whistleblower complaint,” per the lawsuit. “Throughout her employment at Disney, (Kuba) worked incredibly hard and consistently received positive performance reviews.”

However, a Disney spokesperson told MarketWatch in 2019 that “the claims presented to us by this former employee — who was terminated for cause in 2017 — have been thoroughly reviewed by the company and found to be utterly without merit; in fact, in 2018 she withdrew the claim she had filed challenging her termination. We’re not going to dignify her unsubstantiated assertions with further comment.” The spokesperson at the time also claimed that Kuba’s recent claim is “utterly without merit.”

The Walt Disney Company has called the new lawsuit “meritless” and plans to fight it in court.

Disney Sued by Mexico Soccer Club Alleging Contract Breach

Posted on by Mathew Corn Uncategorized

Via DisDining.com

It looks like Disney has a lawsuit on their hands as a northern Mexico soccer club filed on Wednesday, December 30 to sue, due to a alleged contract breach.

As shared by Bloomberg: “Santos Laguna, a soccer club in northern Mexico, is taking on a giant in a lawsuit against Walt Disney Co, alleging breach of contract in a complaint filed in Los Angeles. Santos says that Disney leaves the soccer club with few options to televise its games in Mexico after the entertainment company decided to divest broadcasting assets to acquire 21st Century Fox.”

“Disney agreed to divest or liquidate the Mexican assets of Fox subsidiary FSLA Holdings — which includes Santos’s broadcasting rights — in order to prevent local regulators from blocking the Fox purchase, according to the complaint. The local channels are now managed separately from Disney, as required by Mexican regulators. “

“We believe the claims are utterly without merit and will defend against them vigorously,” a Disney spokesperson said.” Santos says that Disney, FSLA and Mexico’s telecom regulator continue to shut the club out of the divestment process, and says that its contract with FSLA specifically prohibits such a divestment.”

Disney Sued Over ‘Muppet Babies’

Posted on by Mathew Corn Disney+

Muppet Babies – It’s cute, colorful, and adventurous. Well, Disney is now experiencing some woes over this popular reboot as they are being sued for copyright infringement.

As shared by Deadline: “A new copyright infringement and fraud suit against The Walt Disney Company over Muppet Babies is no romp in the nursery. Veteran small screen scribe Jeffrey Scott filed a four-claim complaint in federal court Oct. 22. In the document, Scott alleges that ideas new and old for the Disney Junior and Disney Channel reboot that launched in 2018 were lifted from his work.”

“In 2015, Disney began the early stages of developing the new Muppet Babies show,” the October 22 filing says. “In early 2016, Disney executives met with Scott at their request, and he presented detailed ideas for the show’s updated structure, look and characters, and for new episodes, with the understanding on both sides that, if Disney used Scott’s ideas and produced new episodes, it would pay for Scott’s ideas and honor the commitments that Disney’s predecessor, Marvel, and Jim Henson, made to him,” the complaint continues. “A Disney executive then emailed Scott asking him to send Disney his ideas in writing, which Scott did.”

“Scott is informed and believes that, when Disney executives D’Ambrosia and Sapire solicited Scott’s ideas for a Muppet Babies reboot, they and their superiors at Disney knew, and concealed from Scott, that Disney had assembled or was assembling a production team for the reboot, and that they and their superiors had no intention of offering Scott an opportunity to work on the reboot or to pay him for his ideas, which they intended to use without complying with their obligations under the parties’ implied agreement,” the jury trial seeking filing states.”

Disney did not reply to Deadline’s request for comment.