Disney $DIS (DIS) is trying to get a wrongful death lawsuit dismissed by arguing that the plaintiff had agreed to not file any lawsuit against the media conglomerate when they signed up for a free trial of Disney+.
The lawsuit was originally filed in February in a Florida circuit court by Jeffrey Piccolo. In the lawsuit, Piccolo alleges that on October 5, 2023 his wife Kanokporn Tangsuan died of a severe allergic reaction after eating at a restaurant at Disney (DIS) Springs — a Disney-owned outdoor shopping center near Orlando.
Piccolo alleges that he and his wife informed a server at the Irish pub Raglan Road several times of Tangsuan’s allergies to nuts and dairy. According to the suit, the server guaranteed them that Tangsuan’s order was free of allergens.
About 45 minutes after they finished their dinner, Tangsuan collapsed and later died at a hospital.
The lawsuit said that an investigation by a medical examiner declared that Tangsuan died from “anaphylaxis due to elevated levels of dairy and nut in her system.”
Piccolo is now seeking $50,000 in damages.
However, lawyers for Disney are now asking the court to dismiss the case. They are arguing that Piccolo agreed to settle any disputes against Disney via an arbitration process when he signed up for one-month trial of the company’s streaming platform Disney+ in 2019, AP reported.
“The Terms of Use, which were provided with the Subscriber Agreement, include a binding arbitration clause,” the company wrote in a court motion. “The first page of the Subscriber Agreement states, in all capital letters, that ‘any dispute between You and Us, Except for Small Claims, is subject to a class action waiver and must be resolved by individual binding arbitration’.”
A court hearing for the case is scheduled for Oct. 2.