Following a lawsuit in state court where Disney alleges that the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District is breaking laws by withholding discovery, Disney has also filed a Motion to Compel Discovery in the original case where Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ Oversight District is suing Disney and Disney has filed a countersuit. In this article, we’ll get you up to speed on where everything stands in the state-level lawsuit between the CFTOD and Disney.
Original Lawsuit
The latest action (Motion to Compel) is attached to the original May 2023 lawsuit that the CFTOD filed against Disney. In the lawsuit, the CFTOD outlines its reasoning to declare longterm Development Agreements between Disney and the District null and void. Essentially, Disney entered into longterm development agreements with the outgoing Board of Supervisors earlier this year before DeSantis appointees replaced the old Reedy Creek Improvement District Board.
This longterm development agreement allowed Disney certain rights over the next 30+ years to ensure that development in and around Walt Disney World essentially continued as it had for decades. Of course, the Development Agreements were essentially a form of insurance that the DeSantis takeover wouldn’t dramatically alter the landscape of the Walt Disney World Resort. After taking over the Board, the hand-picked appointees “discovered” the agreements, and they didn’t like that they would be handcuffed by the agreements. Ron Peri, one of the original five DeSantis Board Members, complained that the Board could do little more than roadway repairs.
What did the Board want to do? In an April 2023 speech at the CFTOD Administrative building, DeSantis famously said that he wanted to build a state prison at Walt Disney World, or even a rival theme park. As it turns out, the intention of the Board was likely simply to frustrate and punish Disney for speaking out against the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
Fast forward a bit to September 2023. Instead of pursuing many of its constitutional claims in a Federal lawsuit, Disney moved those allegations to the state-level lawsuit when it countersued the CFTOD. As part of the countersuit and it’s original position as the defendant in the original lawsuit, Disney asked for many discovery documents as it built a defense and an affirmative counterclaim.
November 2023 Continuance Granted
In an October 26th court filing, we got our first look at Disney’s frustration with the CFTOD’s lack of discovery compliance. The information came via a request for continuance on the case, where Disney asked for a 75-day continuance of a summary judgment hearing. In the document, Disney outlined the timeline of the CFTOD dragging its feet when it came to producing documents requested in discovery.
Disney said that the “District has been dodging its obligations to produce concededly relevant discovery while rushing consideration of its motion for summary judgment”. Disney outlined how the District “failed to produce a single document for nearly two months following Disney’s requests, broke commitments to agreed-upon deadlines, and remains in possession of discovery that Disney needs to develop its summary judgment opposition”.
Without rehashing that entire request from Disney, the short version is that the judge agreed to Disney’s Motion for Continuance, and pushed the Summary Judgement hearing to March 12, 2024. During the hearing, the judge said that Disney could file a Motion to Compel Discovery should they feel the need to. Disney did just that, but they also took it a step further and opened a new lawsuit against the District.
Disney Files New Lawsuit
Just a few days ago, Disney filed a new lawsuit against the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District. In the lawsuit, which you can read more about in our earlier article, Disney leveled three counts against the District, alleging Florida Statute and Florida Constitutional violations.
Count one is an unjustified delay and failure to produce records. Count two is a violation of the Public Records Act by failure to retain records. The third Count is a violation by failure to retrieve records.
This lawsuit, while fully related to the ongoing original lawsuit filed by the CFTOD against Disney, lives outside of that case. That said, Disney still needs closure, or, at least, progress, in the original lawsuit, which brings us to their most recent Motion to Compel Discovery.
Disney Files Motion to Compel Discovery
While the new lawsuit plays out, Disney still needs to get the discovery documents it requested to build a defense and counter lawsuit in the original action against Disney from May 2023. Because the discovery lawsuit filed above lives outside of the case in which it needs the documents, Disney filed a Motion to Compel Discovery, asking the judge to order the District to produce the relevant discovery within 7 days.
The Motion, which you can read in its entirety below, outlines many of the same facts established by Disney in earlier requests. Notably, Disney says that “intervention is now necessary to ensure that [Disney] can fairly defend itself against the District’s claims and advance its counterclaims”.
Disney notes that the court previously granted the continuance because of a lack of documents produced by the District during discovery. Disney says that the District has continued to delay providing discovery since the November 17th continuance. Disney says that it “cannot let more time pass waiting for the District to fulfill its empty promises to produce the critical discovery”.
In addition to a lack of documents, the District has not even responded to three of Disney’s original interrogatories. On its face, it appears that the District is attempting to shield Florida Governor Ron DeSantis by not responding to an interrogatory that seeks communications with DeSantis and his office. Disney says it is “entitled to uncover the nature of those discussions and any views expressed by Governor DeSantis or the District, such as their reason for seeking to void the Development Agreement and Restrictive Covenants”.
Disney also seeks information on anyone with knowledge of the process of filling Board of Supervisor seats and the District Administrator job. Disney says that it is “entitled to know why District Administrator Glenton Gilzean and the new District Board members were selected for their respective roles—chiefly, whether the District Administrator and the new District Board were selected based on their willingness to continue the State’s campaign of retaliation against WDPR for expressing a viewpoint that Governor DeSantis and his legislative allies disagree with”.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!