Trips, slips dominate theme-park lawsuits Orlando Sentinel March 30, 2009 For most people, the words "theme-park lawsuit" conjure up images of tourists complaining of serious injuries from thrill rides. But an Orlando Sentinel review of hundreds of personal-injury lawsuits found that Central Florida's theme-park guests are far more likely to sue over injuries that have nothing to do with the parks' signature attractions. The most common lawsuit: the simple slip and fall. The Sentinel's review of 477 state and federal lawsuits filed against the region's three big theme-park companies between Jan. 1, 2004, and Dec. 31, 2008, found that 218 cases — 46 percent — involved people who said they had slipped or tripped and fallen during a visit to a Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando or a Busch Entertainment Corp. theme park or resort. Rides or attractions — the heart of the theme-park business — accounted for 101 of the cases. The other 158 lawsuits involved a variety of accidents in shops, during shows or on streets or sidewalks. Here is a look at the full searchable database of lawsuits. ; The parks may attract more than their share of frivolous lawsuits, one expert says, because they create a fantasy world where expectations of comfort and safety run high. The suits offer a variety of complaints: * A man from Virginia sued Disney World in 2005, saying food poisoning caused him to gag so badly he ruptured his esophagus. * A Titusville woman sued SeaWorld in 2005, saying she fell and was injured when the Clydesdale parade horses spooked and charged the crowd. * A woman from Hawaii sued Busch Gardens-Tampa Bay in 2006, saying she contracted a rare blood disease when a wayward vulture from a trained-bird show clawed her legs. * An Orlando man sued Universal in 2006, saying he was roughed up and injured when security guards threw him out of a bar at CityWalk. "You have to remember: They're like little cities," said Malcolm A. Purow, a lawyer from Hollywood, Fla., who has sued theme parks on behalf of several clients. "And then they have these things going on at these places that aren't normal things — like trained vultures flying, and rides where people go up in the air." Officials from Disney, Universal and Busch Entertainment (which operates SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens) all defend their parks' safety in general terms but decline to discuss their personal-injury litigation in any detail with the Sentinel. "Given the significant size and scope of our operations and the millions of guests that visit our property each year, it is not unexpected that claims will occasionally be filed against our company," Disney World spokeswoman Kim Prunty said. Lyrissa C. Barnett Lidsky, a University of Florida law professor, said a theme park "operates on so many different levels — it involves all kinds of business models combined. It's hard to imagine another business that has such a wide array of activities that create a potential for tort liability." Barry University law professor Stanley Talcott said he is surprised that more people don't sue theme parks. He's not sure if that is a result of the parks' safety efforts or their claims departments' efforts to appease injured people before they head for court. "Considering the numbers of interactions between the public and the providers, that is an astonishingly small number of lawsuits," Talcott said of the 477 cases found in the Sentinel's five-year review. "There are tens of thousands of interactions each day, and each is a potential injury." The Sentinel's lawsuit review also found that: * Few of those who sue a theme park rush into it. Three-fourths of the plaintiffs claiming injuries since the start of 2004 waited more than a year before filing a lawsuit. Almost one in every five waited until just before the Florida statute of limitations expired — four years. Carlos Diez-Arguelles, an Orlando lawyer who has handled at least 10 theme-park suits filed since 2004, said many people spend years trying to negotiate an injury claim short of suing. "Most of them just want their medical bills paid," he said. "They're from out of state, they come down here, and they get injured — their vacations are ruined." * Once sued, a theme park rarely backs down quickly. More than two-thirds of the cases filed against a theme park since the beginning of 2004 remained active in court for at least a year. Some cases from 2004 were still active at the start of 2009. * Most lawsuits are settled out of court. Of the 477 cases, 117 were still pending as of March 15. Of the 360 cases filed since the start of 2004 that have been resolved, only seven went to trial and reached a jury verdict — and the theme parks won all seven. Two-thirds of the rest were either settled officially or concluded with private agreements that stop short of using the word "settlement." Another 27 percent were dismissed by a judge with no indication of a deal. Talcott said the tiny percentage of theme-park cases that went to trial is not unusual for personal-injury suits generally in Florida courts, but he was surprised the parks have won every single verdict in recent years. "They're obviously only trying the cases that they are pretty darn certain that they're going to win," Talcott surmised. "That's probably not a terribly bad strategy — a highly visible plaintiff's verdict might lead to more litigation." * Most settlements are secret. Of the 246 cases filed since 2004 that have already ended in some sort of agreement, only six reported dollar amounts: three with Universal, two with Disney and one with Busch Entertainment. Those deals ranged from a low of $4,300 — offered to the family of a boy injured on Doctor Doom's Fear Fall in Universal's Islands of Adventure — to a high of $145,000 — offered to the family of a toddler run over by a taxicab at a Disney hotel. "All the settlements they [the parks] want confidential, so it's hard even for attorneys who bring claims against theme parks to share information," Diez-Arguelles said. * Plaintiffs who lose sometimes end up footing the theme parks' legal bills. The theme-park companies can, and do, go after unsuccessful plaintiffs, seeking reimbursement for their legal expenses. Under Florida law, anyone who sues anyone else over a personal injury faces this possibility. If the defendant offers a settlement but the plaintiff rejects it and then loses the case (or, in some circumstances, even if the plaintiff wins the case), the defendant can demand the plaintiff pay the defendant's legal bills. Case in point: Stuart McClain, 45, of Largo, who sued Walt Disney World in 2004, saying his back was injured at Epcot in 2001 when he stepped backward and stumbled off a temporary wheelchair ramp that did not have a handrail. He turned down Disney's offer of $250,000 — then lost a jury verdict last April, after which state Circuit Judge Thomas W. Turner ordered him to pay $129,681 of Disney's legal bills. Disney argued that McClain's fall and injuries were caused by his own carelessness. McClain, a former salesman and pastor, said he is fully disabled and in constant pain — and now broke and deep in debt. But he said he does not regret his decision. "I knew I was right," McClain said. Theme parks also probably attract more frivolous cases than most businesses, according to William G. Childs, a professor at Western New England College School of Law who researches theme-park litigation. Childs theorizes that, in seeking to create a "fantasy world" for their customers, theme parks generate high expectations for safety and comfort that, for some guests, rise far above what would be considered reasonable in the "real" world. Last spring, for example, a man from Puerto Rico sued Disney because he had fainted from embarrassment when a ride attendant in the Magic Kingdom challenged him as he stood in a FastPass "shortcut" line at Space Mountain. In separate cases, two women and a man have sued Universal in recent years to complain that, during the resort's annual Halloween Horror Nights festival, costumed characters startled them and caused them to fall down. And a Brooksville man who sued in 2007 complained that he was injured at Busch Gardens when he pushed open a bathroom-stall door — which then bounced off a trash can, swung back and smacked him in the head. "People assume they're going to a place where they aren't going to get hurt," Childs said. "And if they do get hurt, they think, 'By God, the theme park did something wrong.'"
