2016 Lawsuits against Disney

Usually property assessments include improvements and that also means buildings permanently part of the property. I would think that there is a lot of grey area with a theme park. But, technically, if you drive footings 100 plus feet into the ground, it is pretty much considered a permanent addition. I wonder who is doing the assessing. I don't remember many states that have there own assessing agencies. They usually rely on local assessments to base any state tax. Which, in this case, would bring Reedy Creek into the picture.

Considering the infrastructure improvements currently in progress, Reedy Creek would have an interest in more tax money from parks and resorts to pay for all that. I guess it depends on which arm of Disney is doing the suing. However, they may very well be suing themselves, technically, because each department needs to justify individual expense, so any additional taxation will affect their bottom line and make them get some nasty memo's from California.

Yep, Reedy Creek is one of the entities listed as a defendant. It's Walt Disney Parks vs. Rick Singh (the Orange County assessor), Scott Randolph (Orange County tax collector), Leon Biegalski (Head of FL Department of Revenue) and Reedy Creek.
 

SorcererMC

Well-Known Member
If Disney has gotten to the point where they will sue themselves because of how they have set up their profit centers, it is sad indeed. Reedy Creek has always been an obvious partner even though legally they must be separate. I know of very few request that WDW has made that Reedy Creek hasn't gone along with. It appears that management doesn't want to pay, even indirectly, for infrastructures that are needed to maintain WDW properly. There is nothing stopping RC from putting roadblocks up on future projects if they want too. Perhaps it isn't in Disney's overall best interest to make a big fuss about this.

Thanks for articulating this more b/c I wasn't sure how to interpret it, ie are they just balking at paying taxes or what else might be going on? I'm also wondering how common or not it is for companies to actually sue over taxes (vs other strategies).
 

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
Thanks for articulating this more b/c I wasn't sure how to interpret it, ie are they just balking at paying taxes or what else might be going on? I'm also wondering how common or not it is for companies to actually sue over taxes (vs other strategies).
Well, to begin with suing usually doesn't happen unless an appeal has been made and completed with a negative outcome. I don't know what the breakdown in WDW itself is but parts of it are in different counties so there might be different rates in other counties. The problem is probably from those areas outside of some Disney influence.
 

Phantom Mickey

Active Member
Seriously? That intersection is like the intersection of hell and the center of the universe and the State is gonna be petty enough to single out Disney for running a red light at that intersection when people do it there ALL THE TIME?

YES, the problem is, they were caught.

Up here the speed limit is 65. If you are driving with a large group of cars, traveling at a slightly over the speed limit speed of 80 mph. All the POLICE do is aim the raidar at the pod of cars and pick one to pull over. TICKET BABY!! If you try to say you were traveling with the flow of traffic, all he says is "were you driving over the 65 mph speedlimit?" Even the judge will hold that judgement.
 
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Phantom Mickey

Active Member
Forcing me to walk through *gasp* Florida nature.

"Your honor, because of Disney's negligent design forcing guests to walk miles of concrete, which resulted in recurrent blisters to my pinkie toe, the only remedy Disney provided was to walk through nature. Said action and contributory negligence on the part of Disney resulted in my being attacked by the Florida state animal - the cockroach. Such attack resulted in injury, anxiety, pain and suffering, and permanent disability as I now have a morbid fear of cockroaches and nightmares in which I dream I'm a giant cockroach (my apologies to Kafka). In addition to lost wages due to my inability to work as I can no longer go outside anymore due to Katsaridaphobia, I've incurred enormous medical bills as a result of the daily physical and mental therapy I must endure in order to lead some semblance of a normal life, along with prohibitive costs for prescriptive medication I take so I can function. Which is why I am suing in excess of $4B. Disney has made at least that from their new Star Wars film."

So bad you had to have prescription medication? I don't think Medical MARIJIUANA counts. BRAHAhahahahahahaaaa.

But I have one,

On the far side of World Showcase, the fireworks were going off so it was after 9:00 pm. Fireworks shoosting all over the place and the show is ending. I hear a barrage of fireworks fire off behind me and head for the center of World Showcase lagoon.
Something hits my eye and it starts burning. I sit down thinking it's nothing and most of the people are filing out. I am pretty much alone at this point. My eye is really tearing and it still burns so I am now trying to make may way to Future World. I remembered just on the other side there was a nurses station. I'm holding the eye with my hand, to protect it, trying to get to that nurse station and I finally get there and it's CLOSED. after hours I guess. The park still used the phone system called World Key so I headed for the nearest one to ask for assistance. When I got there, It was SHUT DOWN. I couldn't believe my luck.

So here I am, holding my hand over my eye looking for anybody I could to get help as it was still burning and tearing. The only person I saw was a security person by Communicore. So I headed toward that person. I get there and he's trying to flag me to the exit. I told him I Needed a hand. Now the questions, where were you , what happened, how do you feel, etc etc. From that point, they were creating a paper record of everything I said and did. They do have a paramedic team on site and they were called. Now all they tell these guys is they have a guest that may be hurt and where they are, nothing else so here they come with the gurney and all. I am figuring they are kind of angry because it was time to go home and now I am stopping that.
... So I am hit with all the questions again. I said look, something from the fireworks hit my eye and its burning. They looked with a flashlight and said, YUP, the eye is RED alright... I won't even tell you what I was thinking at that moment... So the immediate thing to do was to rinse the eye out. They had me do that twice and it felt much better. It was determined that It was just an irritation, YA THINK! and I could go home.

... Then I was turned over to a Disney Person in charge. I was walked over to a guest relations building. Again, They took my name and address, where I was staying, have I ever done this before, ( just kidding on the last one ) etc, etc. I had to sign a paper or two and They gave me an address of a hospital and a phone number in case I had a problem. I think I was there almost an hour before I could finally go back to the hotel. Luckily, I didn't have any problem after all that but sheesh.
... In the morning I could feel a slight soreness in the eye but it was good but I did think about how they really need to protect themselves against someone that would use that to try to get money.

EXAMPLE..

... So here some person watching the fireworks, they hear a piece of the fireworks hit the walkway. They start to yell that they were hit in the head. Oh the pain of it all. They fall on the ground and say they can't move from the impact. Yelling and carrying on, making sure every guest within earshot is hearing them. Yelling to call her mother if she doesn't make it.... Might need a witness, ya know. Finally a Disney security person comes by, now this "injured " guest is laying flat on the ground saying they can't feel their legs and moaning loudly. The paramedic are called and here they come with their little gurney. By now shes passed out, (watching them with one eye) as they throw her on to the gurney and race over the brick roadway, rattling every bone in her body, to the ambulance. That would had shaken her up a bit I think.

So far she hasn't acrewed any cost, Disney will eat everything up to the ambulance. The ambulance ride to the hospital is from 200 to 500 dollars if not more and then the cost will really pile on in tests to find out why she can't feel her legs......
.... Gotta have guts to do that .....

I remember the guest that went to court in a wheel chair and her head was all wrapped up, telling the judge that a stone fell off of Cinderellas Castle and hit her square in the head. You know it is a lot of trouble to come up with a real good story like that. Too bad they didn't look at the blue prints because the Castle is made of fiberglas, there isn't a stone in it.
 

Disone

Well-Known Member
Just because it cost X to build doesn't mean its worth X for fair market value. How much is that attraction worth on the resale market given that you'd have to dissemble the parts you can and transport them.
Who said moving? When you sell your lot and your house usually they stayed together :) I'm assuming the attractions are staying as part of the land. But even in your case if they did sell off the pieces of the attractions and move them somewhere else the combined value of all the attractions in the Magic Kingdom surely must be more than 414 million.
 

Phantom Mickey

Active Member
Actually the Splash Mountain one may have some merit. I was on Splash this past April. As we started to move, I noticed the safety restraint did not latch and I could easily push it back and forth. No castmember ever tested it. I tried to get their attention before the ride left, but no one paid attention to me. I spent parts of the ride holding it down the best I could. It was quite an interesting drop, I must say.

When the log arrived back at the loading zone, I got out and tried to tell someone what was wrong, but the log was re-laded and sent out. When I finally got to tell someone, they said it must be a fluke, thanks for letting us know.

SPACE MOUNTAIN
When they still had the early cars, single seater with seat belts. We got in and I clipped the belt together. The CM tugs on the strap and it seemed ok. When we took off over the first hill, that belt unclipped. At this point there was no reclipping, I was holding on through the mountain till it ended. I told the CM that it came unclipped and he checked it but that was as far as that went...
 

Phantom Mickey

Active Member
questions, they are suing the property assessor for giving them a value that is too high? What is the benefit in that? Disney is self-insured so it wouldn't affect their insurance rates, because they don't have insurance rates. So what's the harm of having a high value to your property? Is Disney stating that they do not believe epcot is worth that much, Magic Kingdom is not worth that much, Etc....

The above is not a challenge, it is a sincere question. This is perplexing and I don't understand it.

I'm thinking TAXES
 

21stamps

Well-Known Member
So bad you had to have prescription medication? I don't think Medical MARIJIUANA counts. BRAHAhahahahahahaaaa.

But I have one,

On the far side of World Showcase, the fireworks were going off so it was after 9:00 pm. Fireworks shoosting all over the place and the show is ending. I hear a barrage of fireworks fire off behind me and head for the center of World Showcase lagoon.
Something hits my eye and it starts burning. I sit down thinking it's nothing and most of the people are filing out. I am pretty much alone at this point. My eye is really tearing and it still burns so I am now trying to make may way to Future World. I remembered just on the other side there was a nurses station. I'm holding the eye with my hand, to protect it, trying to get to that nurse station and I finally get there and it's CLOSED. after hours I guess. The park still used the phone system called World Key so I headed for the nearest one to ask for assistance. When I got there, It was SHUT DOWN. I couldn't believe my luck.

So here I am, holding my hand over my eye looking for anybody I could to get help as it was still burning and tearing. The only person I saw was a security person by Communicore. So I headed toward that person. I get there and he's trying to flag me to the exit. I told him I Needed a hand. Now the questions, where were you , what happened, how do you feel, etc etc. From that point, they were creating a paper record of everything I said and did. They do have a paramedic team on site and they were called. Now all they tell these guys is they have a guest that may be hurt and where they are, nothing else so here they come with the gurney and all. I am figuring they are kind of angry because it was time to go home and now I am stopping that.
... So I am hit with all the questions again. I said look, something from the fireworks hit my eye and its burning. They looked with a flashlight and said, YUP, the eye is RED alright... I won't even tell you what I was thinking at that moment... So the immediate thing to do was to rinse the eye out. They had me do that twice and it felt much better. It was determined that It was just an irritation, YA THINK! and I could go home.

... Then I was turned over to a Disney Person in charge. I was walked over to a guest relations building. Again, They took my name and address, where I was staying, have I ever done this before, ( just kidding on the last one ) etc, etc. I had to sign a paper or two and They gave me an address of a hospital and a phone number in case I had a problem. I think I was there almost an hour before I could finally go back to the hotel. Luckily, I didn't have any problem after all that but sheesh.
... In the morning I could feel a slight soreness in the eye but it was good but I did think about how they really need to protect themselves against someone that would use that to try to get money.

EXAMPLE..

... So here some person watching the fireworks, they hear a piece of the fireworks hit the walkway. They start to yell that they were hit in the head. Oh the pain of it all. They fall on the ground and say they can't move from the impact. Yelling and carrying on, making sure every guest within earshot is hearing them. Yelling to call her mother if she doesn't make it.... Might need a witness, ya know. Finally a Disney security person comes by, now this "injured " guest is laying flat on the ground saying they can't feel their legs and moaning loudly. The paramedic are called and here they come with their little gurney. By now shes passed out, (watching them with one eye) as they throw her on to the gurney and race over the brick roadway, rattling every bone in her body, to the ambulance. That would had shaken her up a bit I think.

So far she hasn't acrewed any cost, Disney will eat everything up to the ambulance. The ambulance ride to the hospital is from 200 to 500 dollars if not more and then the cost will really pile on in tests to find out why she can't feel her legs......
.... Gotta have guts to do that .....

I remember the guest that went to court in a wheel chair and her head was all wrapped up, telling the judge that a stone fell off of Cinderellas Castle and hit her square in the head. You know it is a lot of trouble to come up with a real good story like that. Too bad they didn't look at the blue prints because the Castle is made of fiberglas, there isn't a stone in it.
Luckily, and thankfully, you sound like a normal person!! Yay, some do still exist!
 

Katie G

Well-Known Member
How long is allowed for filing from time of incident? Some of these go back to an incident in 2012, that seems like a long time to file a simple slip and fall, etc.
 

networkpro

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
Yes
Who said moving? When you sell your lot and your house usually they stayed together :) I'm assuming the attractions are staying as part of the land. But even in your case if they did sell off the pieces of the attractions and move them somewhere else the combined value of all the attractions in the Magic Kingdom surely must be more than 414 million.

Selling and relocation of amusement park attractions is fairly common especially with roller coasters (mostly steel, but some woodies). There are lots of line items that don't add to the value of an attraction but are necessary like site prep turning a marsh into a solid pad that can support the attraction.
 

LAKid53

Official Member of the Girly Girl Fan Club
Premium Member
So bad you had to have prescription medication? I don't think Medical MARIJIUANA counts. BRAHAhahahahahahaaaa.

But I have one,

On the far side of World Showcase, the fireworks were going off so it was after 9:00 pm. Fireworks shoosting all over the place and the show is ending. I hear a barrage of fireworks fire off behind me and head for the center of World Showcase lagoon.
Something hits my eye and it starts burning. I sit down thinking it's nothing and most of the people are filing out. I am pretty much alone at this point. My eye is really tearing and it still burns so I am now trying to make may way to Future World. I remembered just on the other side there was a nurses station. I'm holding the eye with my hand, to protect it, trying to get to that nurse station and I finally get there and it's CLOSED. after hours I guess. The park still used the phone system called World Key so I headed for the nearest one to ask for assistance. When I got there, It was SHUT DOWN. I couldn't believe my luck.

So here I am, holding my hand over my eye looking for anybody I could to get help as it was still burning and tearing. The only person I saw was a security person by Communicore. So I headed toward that person. I get there and he's trying to flag me to the exit. I told him I Needed a hand. Now the questions, where were you , what happened, how do you feel, etc etc. From that point, they were creating a paper record of everything I said and did. They do have a paramedic team on site and they were called. Now all they tell these guys is they have a guest that may be hurt and where they are, nothing else so here they come with the gurney and all. I am figuring they are kind of angry because it was time to go home and now I am stopping that.
... So I am hit with all the questions again. I said look, something from the fireworks hit my eye and its burning. They looked with a flashlight and said, YUP, the eye is RED alright... I won't even tell you what I was thinking at that moment... So the immediate thing to do was to rinse the eye out. They had me do that twice and it felt much better. It was determined that It was just an irritation, YA THINK! and I could go home.

... Then I was turned over to a Disney Person in charge. I was walked over to a guest relations building. Again, They took my name and address, where I was staying, have I ever done this before, ( just kidding on the last one ) etc, etc. I had to sign a paper or two and They gave me an address of a hospital and a phone number in case I had a problem. I think I was there almost an hour before I could finally go back to the hotel. Luckily, I didn't have any problem after all that but sheesh.
... In the morning I could feel a slight soreness in the eye but it was good but I did think about how they really need to protect themselves against someone that would use that to try to get money.

EXAMPLE..

... So here some person watching the fireworks, they hear a piece of the fireworks hit the walkway. They start to yell that they were hit in the head. Oh the pain of it all. They fall on the ground and say they can't move from the impact. Yelling and carrying on, making sure every guest within earshot is hearing them. Yelling to call her mother if she doesn't make it.... Might need a witness, ya know. Finally a Disney security person comes by, now this "injured " guest is laying flat on the ground saying they can't feel their legs and moaning loudly. The paramedic are called and here they come with their little gurney. By now shes passed out, (watching them with one eye) as they throw her on to the gurney and race over the brick roadway, rattling every bone in her body, to the ambulance. That would had shaken her up a bit I think.

So far she hasn't acrewed any cost, Disney will eat everything up to the ambulance. The ambulance ride to the hospital is from 200 to 500 dollars if not more and then the cost will really pile on in tests to find out why she can't feel her legs......
.... Gotta have guts to do that .....

I remember the guest that went to court in a wheel chair and her head was all wrapped up, telling the judge that a stone fell off of Cinderellas Castle and hit her square in the head. You know it is a lot of trouble to come up with a real good story like that. Too bad they didn't look at the blue prints because the Castle is made of fiberglas, there isn't a stone in it.

You do realize my response was sarcasm.......
 

Disone

Well-Known Member
Selling and relocation of amusement park attractions is fairly common especially with roller coasters (mostly steel, but some woodies). There are lots of line items that don't add to the value of an attraction but are necessary like site prep turning a marsh into a solid pad that can support the attraction.
Common perhaps in the industry but not common for Disney. In fact can you think of a single example when Disney has moved and attraction it is purchased from somewhere else or vice versa? You could argue It's a Small World, Carousel of Progress, and a few others but those are all Disney to Disney.
 

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
SPACE MOUNTAIN
When they still had the early cars, single seater with seat belts. We got in and I clipped the belt together. The CM tugs on the strap and it seemed ok. When we took off over the first hill, that belt unclipped. At this point there was no reclipping, I was holding on through the mountain till it ended. I told the CM that it came unclipped and he checked it but that was as far as that went...
Curious... how far do you think it should have gone? You lived, you weren't injured even though there might have been a possibility of that happening, there was nothing else to do at that point except to look at it and see if it was working at the time.
 

PhotoDave219

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Common perhaps in the industry but not common for Disney. In fact can you think of a single example when Disney has moved and attraction it is purchased from somewhere else or vice versa? You could argue It's a Small World, Carousel of Progress, and a few others but those are all Disney to Disney.

Cinderella's Golden Carousel. Oldest attraction in the park. Built by the Philadelphia Tobbagan Company, if I recall.
 

Disone

Well-Known Member
Cinderella's Golden Carousel. Oldest attraction in the park. Built by the Philadelphia Tobbagan Company, if I recall.
Good call. Though it is now Prince Charming's Regal Carousel. Which was in 1971 so the point still is Disney does not typically buy or sell used attractions. The land that your house sits on his not valued as if your house was gone and nothing was around it. The development counts. 414 million dollars for the Magic Kingdom, Come On Let's pool our money and buy it.
 

Phantom Mickey

Active Member
Curious... how far do you think it should have gone? You lived, you weren't injured even though there might have been a possibility of that happening, there was nothing else to do at that point except to look at it and see if it was working at the time.

At the time, I just wanted someone to know that this event happened. If it were a manufacturer defect, it would not have been the only clasp that can let go. If you are asking if I wanted something for the event, sorry, I don't do that. I am more of an informative person.
 

homerdance

Well-Known Member
It doesn't appear that this is the first time that Disney has sued over it's tax bill, in 1989 it sued because it wasn't allowed to use the Ag Tax break:
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com...icultural-classification-osceola-disney-world
Same lawsuit from 1972:
http://www.leagle.com/decision/1975375316So2d59_1358/LANIER v. WALT DISNEY WORLD CO.

In 2012 it wasn't a lawsuit, but they agreed to lower the taxes:
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com...331_1_theme-parks-land-value-disney-officials
https://news.google.com/newspapers?...AIBAJ&sjid=pwYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7065,3417638&hl=en


Four Seasons also is suing:
https://revenuelaw.state.fl.us/LawL.... vs. Rick Singh, as the Property Apprais.pdf

Looks like they were able to have their tax bill reduced, but not as much as they desired.

And, Universal also joined in the fun:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/tourism/os-cfb-tourism-column-06222015-20150619-story.html
Over a parking garage.

and so did DL
http://articles.latimes.com/2003/nov/26/local/me-disney26
 

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