‘Outrageous’: Warning for Disney+ users after firm uses TV subscription to attempt to wriggle out of resort death court case

Disney has been slammed after it tried to get out of a lawsuit when a doctor died at one of its resorts through a technicality on a Disney+ subscription.

Theme park giant Disney is trying to get a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by a US doctor’s grieving husband halted — because he signed up for the Disney+ streaming service years earlier.

Kanokporn Tangsuan’s bereaved widower Jeffrey Piccolo is suing the entertainment juggernaut, claiming that she suffered a fatal allergic reaction shortly after eating at a restaurant at the Disney World reports in Florida last October, the New York Post reports.

But Disney is claiming the $76,000 ($US50,000) lawsuit should be moved out of the courts because Mr Piccolo agreed to arbitrate all disputes with the company when he first signed up for a one-month trial of the Disney+ streaming service back in 2019, court documents stated.

Mr Piccolo’s attorneys have slammed Disney’s latest motion as “preposterous” and “outrageously unreasonable.”

The incident happened at Disney Springs, close to Walt Disney World, in October last year. (Photo by JOE RAEDLE / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)

In the May 31 motion filed in Florida, Disney argued that the Disney+ subscriber agreement Mr Piccolo signed years earlier on his PlayStation called for any dispute — with the exception of small claims — to be “resolved by individual binding arbitration.”.

The company added that Piccolo agreed to similar language when he then used the My Disney Experience app to buy tickets to visit the Epcot theme park in September last year — a month before the ill-fated trip.

Kanokporn Tangsuan died after allegedly suffering a fatal allergic reaction after dining at a Disney Springs restaurant in Florida last October. Picture: Facebook.

The Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Bryan R. Smith / AFP)

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

Mr Piccolo’s lawyers have since fired back, insisting in an August 2 motion that Disney’s argument is “fatally flawed”.

“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,” the lawyers wrote.

They also argue that Mr Piccolo filed the wrongful death suit as the “personal representative of the estate of Kanokporn Tangsuan” and not on behalf of himself.

Disney has said the small print in a Disney+ free trial effectively means it can never be sued – for anything. (Photo by Patrick T. FALLON / AFP)

MS Tangsuan, 42, died of a severe allergic reaction known as anaphylaxis just hours after dining at the Raglan Road Irish pub and restaurant at the Disney Springs entertainment complex with her husband back on October 5.

The physician, who had worked Manhattan’s NYU Langone hospital, had repeatedly stressed to wait staff that she had nut and dairy allergies when she ordered scallops, onion rings, broccoli and corn fritters, according to the filing.

Soon after leaving the restaurant, Mr Tangsuan started experiencing difficulty breathing and collapsed, court papers stated.

Even though an epi-pen was immediately administered to her, she died at a local hospital, the lawsuit said.

Mr Piccolo is seeking more than $76,000 in damages under Florida’s wrongful death act, in addition to mental pain and suffering, loss of income and funeral expenses.

This article originally appeared in The New York Post and was reproduced with permission.