Disney tries to get wrongful death lawsuit tossed because widower had Disney+ subscription

The Walt Disney Company is trying to get a wrongful death lawsuit tossed after it was filed by a doctor’s grieving widower after his wife died from an allergic reaction following a meal at one of the company’s restaurants. The mouse house is claiming that his one month trial of Disney+ membership releases the company from liability.

According to court documents obtained by The New York Post, 42-year-old Kanokporn Tangsuan’s husband Jeffrey Piccolo is suing Disney alleging that she suffered a fatal allergic reaction after eating at a Disney Springs restaurant in Florida in October.

Disney is now claiming the $50,000 suit should be thrown out because Piccolo agreed to arbitrate all disputes with the company when he signed up for a one-month trial of the Disney+ in 2019. Piccolo’s attorneys have called Disney’s argument “preposterous” and “outrageously unreasonable.”

Disney argued that the Disney+ subscriber agreement Piccolo signed on his PlayStation called for any dispute to be “resolved by individual binding arbitration,” and that he agreed to similar language when he then used the “My Disney Experience” app to buy tickets to visit the Epcot theme park in September, a month before the trip to the restaurant.

Disney has argued that both agreements required Piccolo to consent to the arbitration language before purchasing, the court filings claim. 

Piccolo’s lawyers replied in court filings, “The notion that terms agreed to by a consumer when creating a Disney+ free trial account would forever bar that consumer’s right to a jury trial in any dispute with any Disney affiliate or subsidiary, is so outrageously unreasonable and unfair as to shock the judicial conscience, and this court should not enforce such an agreement.”

They also noted that Piccolo filed the wrongful death suit as the “personal representative of the estate of Kanokporn Tangsuan” and not on his own behalf.

Tangsuan died of anaphylaxis, a severe allergic reaction, hours after eating at the Raglan Road Irish Pub and Restaurant with her husband on Oct. 5. According to the compliant, she had repeatedly stressed to wait staff that she had nut and dairy allergies when she ordered scallops, onion rings, broccoli and corn fritters.

Soon after leaving the restaurant, the physician, who had worked Manhattan’s NYU Langone hospital, started experiencing difficulty breathing and collapsed, and even though an epi-pen was immediately administered, she died at a local hospital.

Piccolo is seeking over $50,000 in damages under Florida’s wrongful death act, in addition to damages for mental pain and suffering, loss of income and funeral expenses.