A hearing had not been scheduled as of Monday morning, according to a court docket.ĭocuments filed in the Orange County case make clear hostility in the high-profile disputes. District Judge Allen Winsor to dismiss the case. The DeSantis administration and the district have filed motions asking U.S. For example, it contends the state and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District have violated contract rights by trying to nullify the development agreements. In the federal lawsuit, initially filed April 26 and revised in May after the Legislature and DeSantis approved SB 1604, Disney alleges a series of constitutional violations. The agreements reached between Disney and the former Reedy Creek board before the shift to the new Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board involved long-term development issues within the district. The Reedy Creek district, which the state created in the 1960s, had many powers usually reserved for cities and counties. But in February, they stopped short of dissolution and decided to replace the Reedy Creek board. The legal wrangling comes more than a year after DeSantis and Disney began clashing because company officials opposed a 2022 law that restricted instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in schools.Īfter the clash started, the Republican-controlled Legislature and DeSantis passed a measure that would have dissolved the Reedy Creek district. But the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District lawyers also object to that possibility. “But to make this argument, Disney must hope that this court will ignore Disney’s claim in federal court that SB 1604 is unconstitutional.”Īs an alternative, Disney suggested in its motion that Schreiber could stay the Orange County case until the federal lawsuit is resolved. “Disney first tells this (Orange County) court that Senate Bill 1604 is a valid law that moots the district’s claims,” the district’s attorneys wrote. The district’s lawyers wrote in a June 20 document that Disney’s motion to dismiss the Orange County case is “classic imagineering, inviting the court (Schreiber) to make believe that reality is whatever Disney dreams up.” “There is no order this court can issue that will affect that result.”īut Central Florida Tourism Oversight District lawyers scoffed at the argument, at least in part because Disney is challenging the constitutionality of the May law in federal court. This is an action (lawsuit) by a state board (the Central Florida Tourism Oversight board) raising questions about the validity of contracts that are already void and unenforceable by unequivocal legislative fiat,” Disney lawyers wrote in a May 16 motion. In the lawsuit, the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District is seeking a ruling that development agreements reached by Disney and the former Reedy Creek board are “null and void.” The agreements were approved shortly before the switch to the Central Florida Tourism Oversight board.īut the tangle of issues also involves a federal lawsuit that Disney filed this spring contending that state officials and the revamped district violated its constitutional rights and a measure that the Legislature passed in May to effectively nullify the development agreements between Disney and the former Reedy Creek board.ĭisney argues the Orange County case is moot because the law ( SB 1604) passed in May would eliminate the development agreements at the heart of the case. DeSantis also appointed board members for the revamped district. Judge Margaret Schreiber will face a tangle of legal issues Friday as she considers Disney’s request to dismiss - or at least put on hold - a lawsuit filed in May by the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District.ĭeSantis in February signed a law that established the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District as a successor to the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which Disney had essentially controlled for decades. Ron DeSantis and the entertainment giant. – An Orange County circuit judge this week will hear arguments on a request by Walt Disney Parks and Resorts to toss out a lawsuit filed by a revamped special district amid a feud between Gov.
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