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Mickey Mouse

Tens of millions of visitors head to Disney's theme parks every single year. Although the parks' operations typically run very smoothly, occasionally things will go wrong. And, inevitably, sometimes guests affected by mishaps will throw a lawsuit at the company. Some of these have real merit, and there have been some large payouts as a result. Others, though, are bordering on the ridiculous.

The most serious lawsuits again Disney generally attract extensive media coverage - and, frankly, are not something we'd cover on fun-loving Theme Park Tourist. However, after stumbling across an amusing story about one frivolous lawsuit, we thought it would be fun to hunt around a for a few others and share them with our readers.

Here's a look at 10 of the most amusing lawsuits brought against Disney by theme park visitors over the last few decades.

10. The Three Naughty Pigs

Three Little Pigs

Image © Disney

Disney's loveable characters would certainly never harm or assault a guest...would they? Well, one woman claimed otherwise in 1976. The woman, who weighed some 240 pounds, alleged that one of the Three Little Pigs had run up to her, grabbed her chest and begun shouting "Mommy! Mommy!".

Unfortunately for the allegedly distressed guest, her case didn't progress far. Disney quickly pointed out that the Three Little Pigs are unable to move their arms.

9. Feeling dizzy

Circle-Vision

David Koenig's excellent book Mouse Tales documents a huge number of lawsuits against Disneyland. One of these demonstrates the importance of Disney's nurses taking extensive notes after any incident, no matter how small. One guest claimed to have been made to feel dizzy by Disneyland's former Circarama theater, causing her to fall over a railing and strike her head. Similar theaters are still in place at Epcot's China and Canada pavilions.

Unfortunately for the guest, the nurse that she saw afterwards noted that the guest had said she had tripped over the railing trying to take a "shortcut". Oops.

8. The Tower of Terror fan

Tower of Terror Exterior (2)

In 2009, Disney was sued by Denise Mooty, a lady who rode the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror over 50 times a day. Every day. Mooty suffered from abdominal adhesions, and claimed that the frequent drops on the ride at Disney's Hollywood Studios helped to ease the pain.

Mooty was able to acquire a Guest Assistance Card, allowing her to cut to the front of the line. Eventually, a new manager instigated a limit on the number of rides she could take per day. Allegedly, she became angry at this, and was banned from the parks for abusing Cast Members - although she denied this.

7. The falling "brick"

Magic Kingdom

Any self-respecting Disney fan will know that Cinderella Castle at the Magic Kingdom is not, in fact, made of stone. Instead, its shell is made of fiberglass. Evidently, one woman was unaware of this - she sued Disney claiming that a brick had fallen from the structure and struck her on the head.

Note: this one may be an urban legend. I'm yet to find a news story that verifies it - let me know if you do.

6. It's a Small World after all

It's a Small World

Image © Disney

The cheesy music from It's a Small World is legendary - and, indeed, many people would rather do almost anything other than listen to it on a permanent loop. Jose Martinez successfully sued Disney, winning $8000, after he was left trapped in one of the ride's boats for 40 minutes. The ride had broken down, and Cast Members were unable to remove Martinez (who is confined to a wheelchair) from the boat - with the judge ruling that inadequate assistance had been provided.

 
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Comments

I understand that, howevr it immediately undermines the perception of validity. Good writers realize things like that erode a readers faith in an outlets information. (Even for a blog with mostly click bait/buzzfeed style writing, TPT claims itself to be a news source and needs to worry about that). it's ridiculous to believe at one of the most photographed spots on earth, there isn't a single picture in existence to support the claim the pigs had immobile arms which could have been included. Yet because of that, I'm left questioning how well informed the rest of the article is purely because there's already evidence enough research hasn't been done.

the brick falling is true I was working that day and although did not personally handle the situation we all were discussing it for weeks and became a favorite story to tell new hires when we would be telling them the importance of being careful what they said or did because people love to sue Disney and any chance they think they have of doing so they will take.

we were on "Its a small world "one year for approximately 40 minutes listening to that crazy music, Its fun for a few minutes but not 40, but we never thought of suing Disney for that, now if we had gotten hurt while on the ride, that would have been different. geesh I coulda had a trip to Disney for that 8 grand, lol

In reply to by lorrainecramer (not verified)

There's much more to this case. The man in question in the wheelchair was inable to relieve himself and suffered the "humiliation" of soiling himself while on the ride. Mind you, everyone else was stuck too, and they were outta luck if they had to use the restroom. But because he was disabled, it was an access issue.

In reply to by erin (not verified)

Actually, everyone else, except the man and his wife were evacuated. The man's boat was past the last point where the CM's could pull it backstage to evacuate the wheelchair.
The man "suffered" an "attack" of a condition related to being a parapallegic (I can't recall the name). It wasn't for soiling himself though.
Now, his wife, instead of calling for help when her husband was in distress, videotaped it. If they knew he was in distress 911 would have been called and he could have been evacuated quickly.
Here is one article from the time he filed the lawsuit 2 Years after the incident. (Google quadrapalegic man disneyland, the articles from 2011 are when he filed the lawsuit and the latimes one has the video his wife shot.)
He actually only got $4000, the other $4000 was a fine that went to the state, I believe.

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