Disney CEO Bob Iger, still left, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis may well say he is “moved on” from his very long-managing feud with Disney, but the Household of Mouse isn’t really easing up.
Disney has filed counterclaims, like a breach of contracts claim, against the board of supervisors picked by DeSantis to oversee Walt Disney World’s special tax district, a Thursday court docket filing exhibits.
The company seeks damages more than the alleged breach, as properly as a courtroom purchase for the district to comply with progress contracts that are at the heart of the authorized fight among Disney and DeSantis.
Disney’s requests came in a 55-page submitting denying the district board’s allegations in its point out-degree lawsuit towards the amusement big. Disney’s submitting also put ahead 12 “affirmative defenses” towards the board, like that it lacks standing for its claims.
Spokespeople for the board and Disney did not quickly reply to CNBC’s requests for comment.
Disney is suing DeSantis and his hand-picked board customers in a similar federal lawsuit accusing the governor of political retaliation right after the company denounced the controversial classroom invoice dubbed “Don’t Say Homosexual” by critics.
DeSantis and his allies targeted the specific tax district, previously named the Reedy Creek Enhancement District, that has permitted Florida’s Walt Disney Environment to self-govern its operations because the 1960s. The governor successfully took about the district, replacing its five-member board with his preferred picks and changing its name to the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, or CFTOD.
Prior to that board took charge, Disney crafted advancement deals that it says have been intended to safe its investments in Florida “amid a local climate of escalating retaliation” by the point out federal government. The new board, professing that the firm snuck the contracts as a result of to undermine its energy, voted to nullify them, prompting Disney to sue.
Days later, the DeSantis board countersued in the 9th Judicial Circuit Court in Orange County, Florida, arguing that Disney lacked authority to enter into the contracts and that the prior board failed to give suitable see that it was crafting them.
On Wednesday, the board asked a choose in the state circumstance to rule in its favor with no heading to demo on 5 of its nine counts towards Disney.
The knotty lawful fight is playing out in two different courtrooms with no indication of ending at any time shortly. Disney final month shed a bid to dismiss the state-stage case, and identical makes an attempt by DeSantis and the CFTOD board to dismiss the federal circumstance have nonetheless to be dominated on.
But DeSantis, who is having difficulties to catch up with former President Donald Trump in the Republican presidential most important race, has signaled he wishes the fight to close.
In a CNBC job interview Monday, DeSantis urged Disney CEO Bob Iger to fall the lawsuit, claiming that the business is “likely to get rid of” and incorporating that he and his allies have “essentially moved on.”
DeSantis, whose willingness to acquire drastic motion on politically charged social difficulties helped him fast increase to countrywide prominence, has frequently introduced up his struggle with Disney on the campaign path. He has attacked the firm for embracing difficulties he deems “woke” and has accused the enterprise of sexualizing small children — a assert Iger has named “preposterous.”
