Disney and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ hand-picked oversight board will trade blows in different courts in a legal battle for control of the district that oversees development around the company’s theme parks.
The lawsuit, filed May 1 in the state court covering Florida’s Orange and Osceola counties, accuses the entertainment giant of covertly cobbling together a “series of eleventh-hour deals” to transfer the powers of its now-dissolved special district back to the company before DeSantis assumed control of the board. It escalates a clash between the Republican governor and the state’s largest employer, which claims retaliation in a dueling suit for voicing opposition to a state law.
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The latest legal salvo challenges the validity of the development agreement, while Disney challenges a board vote and legislation declaring that deal void. The cases will simultaneously proceed, at least for now, in state and federal court. If Disney wins on its constitutional claims and the court finds that actions undermining the company’s control of the district are unenforceable, the suit from the current board may become moot. U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker, who was assigned the case, ruled against DeSantis last year in a separate First Amendment case over a law restricting instruction from university professors on what students can learn. The judge assigned to the new board’s suit may stay the case until resolution of the suit in federal court.
The complaint doesn’t dispute allegations of retaliation and instead focuses on deals Disney struck with the previous board before DeSantis took control. The 30-year agreement allows Disney to retain developmental authority over the district, with approval to build another theme park and restrictions that bar the new board from making changes to the sprawling property without securing company approval.
“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,” reads the complaint.
In response to legislative reforms to take away some of its powers, Disney used its control over the district and the two municipalities that neighbor it to “rubber-stamp” the agreements, according to the complaint. The current board claims that the former board didn’t have the authority to enter into the deal.
“The Development Agreement and Restrictive Covenants are riddled with procedural and substantive defects,” the suit reads. “They not only violate the plain and unambiguous statutory mandates governing the RCID’s adoption of these agreements, but they also violate well settled principles of Florida constitutional and common law.”
The new board also points to alleged procedural failures to provide public notice of the hearings in which the former board approved the deals. Though the district published notices in The Orlando Sentinel, it argues that they didn’t tell property owners how they would be affected by the proposal.
Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board chairman Martin Garcia said on Monday during a vote to approve the suit that the goal is to reassert development authority over the company. “Since Disney sued us, we have no choice now but to respond,” he said.
In its suit, Disney stressed that it was cornered into suing. It wrote that it “finds itself in this regrettable position because it expressed a viewpoint the Governor and his allies did not like,” according to the complaint. The company will likely move to stay the state court case until Walker, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, rules on the validity of legislation placing DeSantis in control of the district. In a case concerning Florida’s so-called “Stop Woke Act,” the judge ruled against DeSantis and blocked parts of the law.
“In the popular television series Stranger Things, the ‘upside down’ describes a parallel dimension containing a distorted version of our world,” Walker wrote. “Recently, Florida has seemed like a First Amendment upside down.”
DeSantis is likely to appeal a ruling in Disney’s suit if he loses. It will be considered by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where more than half of the judges were appointed by former President Donald Trump.
Disney and DeSantis’ office didn’t respond to requests for comment. The Florida inspector general is currently investigating criminal fraud related to alleged ethical violations, such as conflicts of interest and self-dealing, related to passage of the development agreements. DeSantis on April 3 called for an inquiry into whether the deal is valid.
