Walt Disney Company employees packed up, sold their California homes, and moved to sunny Orlando, Florida, to work at a billion-dollar campus … that never got built. Now, some of those employees are taking Disney to court.
According to the LA Times, two current WDC employees (Maria De La Cruz and George Fong) have filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court. The two allege that Disney caused them to believe they would become unemployed unless they relocated.
Understandably, moving across the country just for a job is stressful, especially as inflation caused everything to go up in 2022. The court documents relay that selling a long-time family home was “particularly painful” for Mr. Fong.
If enough people affected by the Lake Nona project’s shuttering step up, this could turn into a class-action lawsuit. It’s doubtful that punitive damages (if won and after the lawyers take their share) could make up for the time and money lost by the employees who moved all the way across the continent.
Disney has remained quiet on this issue, but it will undoubtedly need to make some sort of statement as the snowball heads downhill.
In May 2023, Disney canceled the Lake Nona campus project. This was a surprising move because the company had been actively talking to Florida contractors up until the announcement.
The reason given for this sudden halt by Disney Parks chairman Josh D’Amaro was full of corpo speak that didn’t really say anything:
“Given the considerable changes that have occurred since the announcement of this project, including new leadership and changing business conditions, we have decided not to move forward with construction of the campus. This was not an easy decision to make, but I believe it is the right one. As a result, we will no longer be asking our employees to relocate.“
At the time, we speculated that the move was a way for Disney to stick it to Florida Govenor Ron DeSantis. Remember, during the past couple of years, the politician and the Walt Disney Company were battling over who would control the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which gave the mouse a lot of leeway regarding construction projects.
[Source: LA Times]
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