Walt Disney Parks and Resorts is accusing the district that now regulates Disney’s Orlando theme park of failing to respond to Disney’s document requests in preparation for the district’s summary judgment motion in state court.
Disney attorneys made the allegation that the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (CFTOD) is delaying the discovery process in a lawsuit against Disney that is being litigated in the Ninth Judicial Circuit.
The lawsuit is part of an ongoing dispute between the two parties after the previous Reedy Creek Improvement District was phased out and a new district with a board appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis put in place to oversee Disney’s operations. The state lawsuit was filed in the wake of Disney opposing a state law signed by DeSantis that limited public school discussions of topics dealing with sexual orientation and gender identity.
Disney, in turn, has filed a lawsuit in federal court against state officials, alleging their actions have violated the company’s First Amendment free-speech rights.
In the state case, the CFTOD argues that Disney and the previous Reedy Creek board signed development agreements that illegally transferred powers from the oversight district to the company. The actions were an attempt to dilute the power of the new state board overseeing Disney’s Orlando operations, the CFTOD argued.
“The district has been dodging its obligations to produce concededly relevant discovery while rushing consideration of its motion for summary judgment,” the company said in a motion to the court on Oct. 26. “Particularly where the court has found the questions presented by this case to be ‘of great interest to (Florida’s) economy and citizenry,’ the district’s haste is indefensible – and unfair to Disney.”
Disney accuses the CFTOD of not providing requested documents to the company’s attorneys over a period of almost two months, in addition to breaking promises to abide by deadlines that passed with no documents being produced.
Last week, Circuit Judge Margaret Schreiber agreed with Disney’s motion to delay a hearing on the CFTOD’s motion for summary judgment until March 12 of next year.
Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida, said there may be three reasons for the district’s slow-walking the discovery process.
“Maybe this is just the district’s lawyers playing hardball, basically trying to make the other side's life miserable legally speaking,” Jewett told the Florida Record.
Another explanation is that there may be some weakness in the district’s case, and the CFTOD is attempting to run down the clock before having to reveal it, he said. Jewett also suggested that the Governor’s Office’s tendency to stonewall information requests might be playing a role in the legal actions.
“With the DeSantis administration broadly, there has been a pattern of not responding to record requests in a variety of areas … “ he said. “Perhaps this may be one more example of this.”
A request for comment sent to the district produced no response.
“Disney has yet to receive a single document from any of the long-serving employees the district put forward as declarants in support of its summary judgment motion,” Disney said in its request for a 75-day delay on consideration of the district’s summary judgment motion. “Nor has Disney received a single document from any of the district’s board members.”