ORLANDO, Fla. – Attorneys for the Walt Disney World governing district taken over final 12 months by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ allies don’t need the governor’s appointees answering questions below oath as a part of its state lawsuit in opposition to Disney.
District attorneys on Monday filed a movement for a protecting order that might stop the DeSantis-appointed board members of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District from having to give videotaped depositions to Disney attorneys.
Disney and the DeSantis appointees are preventing in state court docket over who controls the governing district for Disney World. The district had been managed by Disney supporters earlier than final 12 months’s takeover — which was sparked by the corporate’s opposition to Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” legislation. It supplies municipal companies equivalent to firefighting, planning and mosquito management, amongst different issues, and was managed by Disney supporters for many of its 5 a long time.
District attorneys cite the “apex doctrine,” which typically supplies that high-level authorities officers should not be topic to depositions until opposing events have exhausted all different technique of acquiring data. The doctrine is used in only a handful of U.S. states, together with Florida.
“Disney cannot demonstrate that the individual board members have unique, personal knowledge that would be relevant to any of the claims, counterclaims or defenses in this action to overcome the apex doctrine,” district attorneys stated in their movement. “Disney’s assault-style effort to depose all the board members is simply an improper form of harassment of these high-level government officials.”
The movement consists of statements from the board members who declare that being compelled to give depositions would “impede” their skill to fulfill their duties and divert sources and a focus away from overseeing the district.
Earlier this month, Disney gave discover of its intention to query below oath six present and previous DeSantis-appointed board members for the aim of “discovery,” or the method of gathering data for the case. The leisure big has stated beforehand that the district has stymied its efforts to get paperwork and different data, and Disney filed a public information lawsuit in opposition to the district earlier this 12 months, claiming the district’s response to its requests had been “unreasonably delayed” and “woefully inadequate.”
Since the takeover final 12 months, the district has confronted an exodus of skilled staffers, with many in exit surveys complaining that the governing physique has been politicized for the reason that changeover. Just this month, the district’s administrator left to change into a county elections supervisor at half the $400,000 wage he was incomes on the district, and the district’s DeSantis-appointed board chairman departed the next week.
A combat between DeSantis and Disney started in 2022 after the corporate, dealing with important inside and exterior stress, publicly opposed a state legislation that critics have referred to as “Don’t Say Gay.” The 2022 legislation bans classroom classes on sexual orientation and gender identification in early grades and was championed by DeSantis, who used Disney as a punching bag in speeches till he suspended his presidential marketing campaign this 12 months.
As punishment, DeSantis took over the district via laws handed by the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature and appointed a brand new board of supervisors.
Disney sued DeSantis and his appointees, claiming the corporate’s free speech rights had been violated for talking out in opposition to the laws. A federal choose dismissed that lawsuit in January. Disney has appealed.
Before management of the district modified palms from Disney allies to DeSantis appointees early final 12 months, the Disney supporters on its board signed agreements with Disney shifting management over design and development at Disney World to the corporate. The new DeSantis appointees claimed the “eleventh-hour deals” neutered their powers, and the district sued the corporate in state court docket in Orlando to have the contracts voided.
Disney has filed counterclaims that embody asking the state court docket to declare the agreements legitimate and enforceable.
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