.jpg)
I made a strange assertion in my article about the girl kicked out of Disney World for wearing a Tinker Bell outfit: that a lot of people like to sue Disney. It’s something I said because, following Disney news professionally for the past 3 years, I’ve noticed a few lawsuits brought against the parks for one reason or another. Apparently I’m not the only one to notice the trend; The Orange County Register recently published an article focusing on how two southern California amusement parks, Knott’s Berry Farm and Disneyland, are frequently the targets of lawsuits.
The most recent involved the dark side of the force. A cast member dressed as Darth Vader in Disneyland shooed away a bird, and in the process smacked a woman in the back. She claimed severe injury, back pain and headaches, leading to trouble sleeping. That’s just one of the latest cases; here’s a sampling of others: a woman asserted her daughter was thrown off a Zipline ride at Disneyland and injured. A man said an employee at a Disneyland coffee shop poured scalding coffee on his arm. Another man claimed injury at Disneyland when a piece of metal blew off a popcorn stand and hit him.
Some of these cases have merit, and in many instances Disney was ordered by the court to pay damages to the injured party. I have more sympathy, for example, with the mother whose daughter fell off of a ride than the man who was hit by a piece of a popcorn stand. I know I don’t have all of the facts, but one seems like direct negligence on the part of Disneyland safety standards, and the other seems like, to an extent, the sort of freak accident that might happen anywhere.
I could list all the many suits, some more ridiculous than others (if you’re playing on railings when you’re obviously not supposed to and hurt yourself, then I really don’t have much sympathy for you). What I’m more interested in examining, however, is why so many people target the Disney Parks for lawsuits, and what that might inform us about the experiences that we’ll have there.
I think the “why” part has to do with what Disney is: ubiquitous Americana. People are always more likely to sue if they feel like they can get a piece of a corporation; they know they have a better shot of getting more money. Disney’s not just some little chain of restaurants: they’re a worldwide giant, one of the handful of companies that own just about all of the American media empire. That’s not even going into their revenue from parks, merchandising, and everything else.
I just wonder: if a random man in a park shooed a bird away and accidentally struck a woman in the process, would she sue him? Maybe if she experienced real pain and didn’t have insurance to cover her medical bills she would, but without knowing more about the case part of me is suspicious that she only made an issue of it to try to get a piece of the Mouse House.
Our litigious culture, and how frequently it seems to target Disney Parks, puts the incident with the girl in the Tinker Bell costume in a new light. Sure, park execs could have handled it better. But it’s not hard to see why they feel the need to protect themselves, even if they might sometimes be too zealous about it.
What do you think: what would need to happen for you to consider suing a place like Disneyland?
Related Articles:
New FastPass Technology Tested at Disney World
Disney’s Plans to Broaden its Appeal
*(This image by jurvetson is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.)
