The board picked by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to oversee Walt Disney World’s special tax district asked a state court to dismiss Disney‘s bid to recuperate damages over a breach of contracts counterclaim.
“All of Disney’s counterclaims fail as a matter of law,” attorneys for the district board wrote in a court filing Wednesday in circuit court in Orange County, Florida.
That is mainly because Disney’s contracts are “void as a matter of Florida law and due to this fact have never had any legal force or existence,” the board wrote.
Disney denies that the contracts are void.
The filing got here weeks after Disney, the defendant within the state-level case, went on offense and is now searching for damages against the governor’s board members.
Disney is embroiled in two lawsuits stemming from its battle with DeSantis that began last 12 months, when the corporate publicly denounced the controversial classroom bill dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” by critics.
Shortly thereafter, DeSantis, who signed the Republican-backed laws, targeted the special district that had allowed Disney to effectively self-govern its Orlando-area theme parks for many years. He signed measures changing its name — from Reedy Creek Improvement District to Central Florida Tourism Oversight District — and replacing its five-member board of supervisors along with his own picks.
Each lawsuits relate to development deals that Disney says it struck to secure its future investments in Florida “amid a climate of escalating retaliation” by the state government.Â
The DeSantis-backed board members had voted to nullify Disney’s contracts after accusing the corporate of attempting to undermine the brand new board’s authority and sneaking the deals through right before the change in leadership took place.
Disney sued in federal court, accusing DeSantis of orchestrating a political retaliation campaign against an organization over its expression of speech that the governor disliked. Disney asked that court to declare that its contracts remain in effect.
The DeSantis board countersued in Florida state court days later. It argued that Disney lacked authority to enter into the contracts and that the prior board failed to provide proper notice that it was crafting them. Disney maintains that it hashed out the deals in public forums in compliance with the law.
Last month, Disney filed counterclaims in that state-level case. The corporate seeks damages over the board’s alleged breach of its contracts, and it wants the court to order the district to comply with the deals.
Disney’s filing also recommend 12 “affirmative defenses” against the board, including that it lacks standing for its claims.
In one other court filing Wednesday, the DeSantis board rejected all of Disney’s affirmative defenses, writing repeatedly that “Disney has unclean hands.”
“Disney is the reason behind the Agreements’ invalidity,” the brand new board wrote, arguing that the corporate “knew or must have known that the Agreements were fatally defective and is charged with an obligation to determine their legality.”
Spokesmen for Disney and the brand new district board didn’t immediately reply to CNBC’s requests for comment on the most recent filings.
