Legal issues with Fastpass+ this summer? (a little long)

[velvetsqueeze]

A little background: Before I took my current job 3 years ago, I worked for 5 years at a manufacturing company. Part of my job was to be the liaison between the attorneys and insurance brokers on lawsuits against the company. The company always had lawsuits going on, ranging from the sublime ($1,000) to the ridiculous ($7 million). Most of the lawsuits were either dismissed after the initial investigation or settled out of court. Almost all of the settled lawsuits could have been won by the company had they progressed to court, but the costs to take the case to court outweighed the benefit of winning.

What did I learn during those 5 years? People will sue anyone for any reason, whether there is a basis for it or not.

My current thoughts: I'm looking at the busy days (8+) at the Disney parks and the long FP+ lines they are currently experiencing. I'm looking at the fact that these long lines are outside in the sun. I'm looking at the historical data for temperatures in Lake Buena Vista, FL for June/July, which seem to easily top 90+ degrees each day. Add the high humidity and you're looking at a heat index of over 100 degrees.

My question: Do you think Disney will open itself up to lawsuits with these long lines in the heat? I'm thinking about the people who are too hot, dehydrated (most people don't know when they are dehydrated), have no fluids with them, and don't want to lose their place in line to get something to drink. They pass out from the heat while standing in line. Will they sue Disney for causing the heat exhaustion by negligence? What if someone dies after the fall (i.e., hits their head just right)? Will the first lawsuit made public cause a domino effect and lead to more lawsuits?

 

[kidd_freeper]

There will always be lawsuits against Disney.
Yes, it is possible.

 

[Q-man]

A little background: Before I took my current job 3 years ago, I worked for 5 years at a manufacturing company. Part of my job was to be the liaison between the attorneys and insurance brokers on lawsuits against the company. The company always had lawsuits going on, ranging from the sublime ($1,000) to the ridiculous ($7 million). Most of the lawsuits were either dismissed after the initial investigation or settled out of court. Almost all of the settled lawsuits could have been won by the company had they progressed to court, but the costs to take the case to court outweighed the benefit of winning.

What did I learn during those 5 years? People will sue anyone for any reason, whether there is a basis for it or not.

My current thoughts: I'm looking at the busy days (8+) at the Disney parks and the long FP+ lines they are currently experiencing. I'm looking at the fact that these long lines are outside in the sun. I'm looking at the historical data for temperatures in Lake Buena Vista, FL for June/July, which seem to easily top 90+ degrees each day. Add the high humidity and you're looking at a heat index of over 100 degrees.

My question: Do you think Disney will open itself up to lawsuits with these long lines in the heat? I'm thinking about the people who are too hot, dehydrated (most people don't know when they are dehydrated), have no fluids with them, and don't want to lose their place in line to get something to drink. They pass out from the heat while standing in line. Will they sue Disney for causing the heat exhaustion by negligence? What if someone dies after the fall (i.e., hits their head just right)? Will the first lawsuit made public cause a domino effect and lead to more lawsuits?

WDW has had lines in the sun in Florida's heat and humidity for over 40 years now. It is nothing new to Magic Bands/FP+. Fast Pass had only been around a faction of that time and once they were gone you were headed to the standby line.

 

[fbb]

There's a post up the board about Magic Band anxiety. Should we worry about lawsuits for that as well?

 

[M5ward]

Really? A Disney vacation is a choice. People are (or should be) accountable for their own choices. As long as there are lawyers, there will be lawsuits. I just hope that eventually personal responsibility becomes the norm again.
All that said, yes, someone at some time will probably go this route. Chances of success would probably be minimal. There might be a greater chance for a settlement since, as you say, litigation is expensive. If it becomes a pattern...well, I have to imagine that Disney has a gazillion lawyers.

 

[MadToad]

A little background: Before I took my current job 3 years ago, I worked for 5 years at a manufacturing company. Part of my job was to be the liaison between the attorneys and insurance brokers on lawsuits against the company. The company always had lawsuits going on, ranging from the sublime ($1,000) to the ridiculous ($7 million). Most of the lawsuits were either dismissed after the initial investigation or settled out of court. Almost all of the settled lawsuits could have been won by the company had they progressed to court, but the costs to take the case to court outweighed the benefit of winning.

What did I learn during those 5 years? People will sue anyone for any reason, whether there is a basis for it or not.

My current thoughts: I'm looking at the busy days (8+) at the Disney parks and the long FP+ lines they are currently experiencing. I'm looking at the fact that these long lines are outside in the sun. I'm looking at the historical data for temperatures in Lake Buena Vista, FL for June/July, which seem to easily top 90+ degrees each day. Add the high humidity and you're looking at a heat index of over 100 degrees.

My question: Do you think Disney will open itself up to lawsuits with these long lines in the heat? I'm thinking about the people who are too hot, dehydrated (most people don't know when they are dehydrated), have no fluids with them, and don't want to lose their place in line to get something to drink. They pass out from the heat while standing in line. Will they sue Disney for causing the heat exhaustion by negligence? What if someone dies after the fall (i.e., hits their head just right)? Will the first lawsuit made public cause a domino effect and lead to more lawsuits?

Disney is a Self-Insured entity with a large Risk division and in-house counsel. Based upon the size of the division alone, Disney fields a substantial number of claims annually. I doubt Magic Bands will have any significant impact in the number of claims - they are well protected by the waivers imbedded within the ticket purchases as well as inherent risk.

 

[EMode]

I guess you could say that Disney opened itself up for lawsuits the minute they broke ground for a theme park in the middle of Florida.
Yes, I think there will be people who will try to sue over having to stand in the hot sun, not because of anything Disney has done, but because they are idiots.

 

[FLchick415]

People will do anything to try to get money.

For example, a guy recently tried to sue McDonald's because they only gave him ONE NAPKIN.

 

[disneysophie]

Ridiculous! Even just regular fast pass has been around only the last few years so long lines have always existed in disney and so has the heat!

 

[mom2AidanAndEli]

It seems so easy to dismiss this as ridiculous, but people will sue over anything so I'm sure there will be cases like that.

After all, if you can win lots of money for spilling your own coffee in your own lap and getting burned, I guess fainting in the hot sun because you chose to stand there should be worth something!

 

[Bullseye]

Guests have been waiting in long lines in Florida heat at WDW since the place open.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

The same requirements will fit almost any outdoor activity.........all over the South!

AKK

 

[Bullseye]

The same requirements will fit almost any outdoor activity.........all over the South!

AKK

Then we should sue the south

 

[mousehockey37]

No matter how realistic or frivolous the reason, people will always have a reason for legal matters.

Whether it's a legit safety issue (part of a ride falls off as you pass through and hits and injures you) or something so ridiculous as to missing a paid reservation by 10 minutes because you were stuck in the 3pm parade traffic and lost the reservation, you'll see anyone who has the nerve to do it, pursue the action.

Remember, all these lawsuits are why we can't have nice things.

 

[Maddysdaddy]

I am a practicing lawyer up here in the Great White North, and what I always tell people is that anybody with $200 in their pocket can sue anyone they want to for any reason. Whether there is any merit to the claim is another story entirely.

Unless Disney starts rounding up random people off the street and shackles them in a chain gang in ride lines in the burning sun, I'm not sure they have much to worry about. Disney isn't forcing park guests to: a - come to the park on a hot day; b - to stand in line; and, c - to not properly hydrate themselves.

To somehow make this Disney's responsibility is the equivalent of saying that every baseball stadium is somehow responsible for making sure every ticket holder is properly hydrated because they are sitting in the sun watching a game for three hours.

If people want to be outside in the heat, the onus is theirs to ensure that they are prepared to deal with the consequences - Disney has shade, Disney certainly had a gazillion places to purchase drinks, and Disney has plenty of shaded attractions where guests can cool down.

Don't think Disney or their lawyers will lose too much sleep over this.

 

[Chimaera]

if you can win lots of money for spilling your own coffee in your own lap and getting burned

People always throw this one out as an example of a frivolous lawsuit, but if you actually read the case it was clearly not the customer's fault that A) the coffee was kept at a ridiculously high temperature and B) the cup's design was such that if you removed the lid to add sugar the cup had no structural integrity and would collapse.

There are stupid lawsuits filed every day, most of which we don't hear about because they get laughed out of court. The Mcdonalds coffee lawsuit is not one of them.

 

[JimmyV]

To somehow make this Disney's responsibility is the equivalent of saying that every baseball stadium is somehow responsible for making sure every ticket holder is properly hydrated because they are sitting in the sun watching a game for three hours.

Without suggesting that I think that there would be any merit to such a suit, I think that Disney could be more vulnerable than the example you cite. If the people are waiting out in the open heat and sun waiting to tap the initial Mickey, and on the other side of that Mickey is an empty, shaded, misted, cooled, professionally designed queue area, the "reasonable person" standard could find Disney liable where the stadium would not be. To wit: Would a reasonable person cause people to stand out in the punishing heat and sun when a viable, shaded area is mere feet away and unused? If a Central Florida jury got that question, I do not think that it is a slam dunk that Disney wins. A jury could find that Disney was negligent in designing a system that pushed people out into the heat when the shaded areas were going unused, especially if the remedial measure was no more complicated than either eliminating the first Mickey, or moving it further down the line so that people lined up in the shade. The stadium offers no viable alternative to where people watch the game. As long as the Space Mountain indoor queue is empty while people line up clear out to the People Mover, I can see a jury finding a difference.

 

[velvetsqueeze]

I guess why this intrigues me is the reports of long lines in places there were never long lines before (queues winding around in a building are not seen from the sidewalk). These lines used to be under a roof, but they are now outside. To play the prosecution role (or devil's advocate, if you will), I could see someone arguing that Disney intentionally prevented them from standing in the shaded queue due to the first Mickey.

It's crazy that I think like this. Maybe I should sue my former employee for tainting my brain?

 

[Love Tink]

After all, if you can win lots of money for spilling your own coffee in your own lap and getting burned, I guess fainting in the hot sun because you chose to stand there should be worth something!

If it is the McDonalds coffee case that you mean, I wish I didn't still have to see such ill-informed statements about this case even all these years later. The political consultants who seized that case and wildly misrepresented it in order to achieve their goal of making personal injury lawsuits seem ridiculous were astoundingly successful.

Disney Parks took a stance very early in their existence that they were not going to just settle lawsuits. I think even 40 or 50 years ago, they knew that they would be an easy target for people who don't really have a claim, but think, "Oh, they'll just settle." Disney is famous for taking even very small claims to court rather than "paying up." I doubt FP+ will change that.

 

[Love Tink]

People always throw this one out as an example of a frivolous lawsuit, but if you actually read the case it was clearly not the customer's fault that A) the coffee was kept at a ridiculously high temperature and B) the cup's design was such that if you removed the lid to add sugar the cup had no structural integrity and would collapse.

There are stupid lawsuits filed every day, most of which we don't hear about because they get laughed out of court. The Mcdonalds coffee lawsuit is not one of them.

You were ahead of me, I see! I hate when I see the casual ignorance about that case. McDonalds was negligent and the woman was seriously injured (disfigured).