Central Florida Tourism Oversight District lawsuit against Disney asks the court to declare contracts void and says they are 'not even worth the paper they were printed on'

May 01, 2023 in "Reedy Creek Improvement District"

Posted: Monday May 1, 2023 5:30pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District has now filed its lawsuit in the 9th Judicial Circuit Orange County against Walt Disney Parks and Resorts.

The 188-page lawsuit opens by saying that "in an effort to stymie Florida's elected representatives, Disney covertly cobbled together a series of eleventh- hour deals with its soon-to-be-replaced puppet government."

The suit continues, "Disney hoped to tie the hands of the new, independent Board and to preserve Disney's special status as its own government in the District for at least the next thirty years. These agreements reek of a backroom deal—drafted by Disney with the acquiescence a lawyer who represented both Disney and the District, set for hearing without proper notice, and hustled through a compliant Disney-controlled Board that Disney knew would not dwell long on the issue. But perhaps out of haste or arrogance, Disney's deals violate basic principles of Florida constitutional, statutory, and common law. As a result, they are null and void—not even worth the paper they were printed on."

The lawsuit repeats many of the same claims presented at the April 26 district board meeting, where the motion to declare Disney's agreements with Reedy Creek Improvement null and void was approved. It asks the court to declare that the Development Agreement and Restrictive Covenants void, unenforceable, and/or invalid.

You can view the full Central Florida Tourism Oversight District lawsuit against Disney here.

This evening's lawsuit follows comments by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis that the state is also working on new legislation to revoke Disney's previous agreements with Reedy Creek.

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monothingie13 minutes ago

The most important thing to Bob, above all else, is his ego and legacy. Publicly or privately exposing his shortfalls is a major threat to him.

Cliff15 minutes ago

Ok...but we as Disney fans believe that Iger and his board have done nothing wrong. Peltz will be under a Disney NDA. He cannot reveal business secrets to the public. However, NDA's are null and void against "illeagal" activities. Peltz MUST be a whistle blower to the SEC, IRS and DoJ in ONLY "these" cases. Again....as Disney fans, we ARE 100% sure that Disney has done nothing illeagle. Because of this....Peltz can't hurt Iger or Disney. Peltz is MASSIVELY outnumbered and is no threat to Iger's Board or his company. Let's all stop worrying...please?

monothingie18 minutes ago

I agree, Disney started putting feelers out for wanting to settle and tone this down at the end of 2023 and after the setbacks in the various court cases, they realized that it would be increasingly difficult to put things back to the way they were. I agree with you on the Governor, but I will add that it was likely not the State of Florida initiating settlement talks with Disney, but the other way around.

monothingie24 minutes ago

I think it's a stretch to say that they've done something illegal (but you never know). It's more likely that a dissonant board member or two will have access to information and actions that would be embarrassing for The Company and paint Bob and his fellow C-Suite occupants as incompetent, reckless, clueless, etc.

ParentsOf425 minutes ago

Based on public statements, Disney wanted to cool things off some time ago. But with DeSantis running for president, any deal would have been spun as a DeSantis loss by his opponents. Now that he’s no longer running and the national spotlight is no longer on him, I suspect DeSantis was willing to agree to the deal that Disney wanted to make all along. Disney wants profitable business growth in Florida. This agreement supports that.

monothingie27 minutes ago

Having these two geniuses in charge?

Sirwalterraleigh48 minutes ago

Uh oh…BATTLESTATIONS!!!

Cliff1 hour ago

No,...I voted against the people that have already been destroying it for years. Besides,..he is just one man on a board of a dozen. If Disney has done nothing illegal on the board over the years, then Iger is free to IGNORE Peltz! Now,....If Disney "has" done illegal things?....then yes!!,...that one man will be a SEVERE problem when he sees that....and he WILL see it....and he won't try to cover it. The dude will snitch to the SEC, DoJ and IRS because he won't want to be complacent. If he sees things, he now has a legal, fiduciary responsibility to report them and anybody involved in them. I think we can all assume Disney is "clean" and they are free to ignore Peltz all they want. If Iger and his Board have done nothing wrong, then Peltz has little power to fix anything and life for Iger goes on as normal. Iger fans in this forum have nothing to fear from Peltz. He is just an extreme minority compared to Iger and his people.

lentesta2 hours ago

Don't get me started. My medication hasn't kicked in.

Sirwalterraleigh2 hours ago

He didn’t lose based on Disney Nobody struggles to get more than 10% to a circus other than on there own merits

Sirwalterraleigh2 hours ago

The press started digging and found that nobody likes him…If they had needed to dig deeper…it would have gotten much worse.

mkt3 hours ago

Cute. No. An actual lobbyist with a law license who is GOP aligned and is in my extended family.

Tom P.3 hours ago

Also, there are tens of thousands of Florida voters who work for Disney Orlando. Easier to convince them of the big bad folks in across the country in California than right there where they work.

OvertheHorizon3 hours ago

This sounds right to me. I suspect that the recent moves made by the Governor to change a Board member and bring in a more experienced administrator were precursors to the agreed upon settlement.