{"id":1536,"date":"2024-06-26T19:53:03","date_gmt":"2024-06-26T19:53:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/village-peoples-lawsuit-over-disney-world-ban-can-proceed-judge\/"},"modified":"2024-06-26T19:53:03","modified_gmt":"2024-06-26T19:53:03","slug":"village-peoples-lawsuit-over-disney-world-ban-can-proceed-judge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/village-peoples-lawsuit-over-disney-world-ban-can-proceed-judge\/","title":{"rendered":"Village People’s Lawsuit Over Disney World ‘Ban’ Can Proceed: Judge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tA California judge is refusing \u2014 for now \u2014 to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Village People against Disney that claims the Hollywood giant blackballed the legendary disco band from performing at Walt Disney World.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a ruling issued Friday (June 21), San Diego County Superior Judge Katherine Bacal<\/strong> ruled that the Village People could move forward with the case, which accuses Disney of violating state laws and committing fraud by placing a \u201cdo not book edict\u201d on the group.<\/p>\n

\n\tDisney had argued that it has a First Amendment right to hire \u2014 or to not hire \u2014 any band it chooses, citing a special California law designed to protect free speech. But in her ruling last week, the judge said the company had failed to prove that the statute applied to the case.<\/p>\n

\n\tImportantly, the decision does not mean the Village People will win the lawsuit. Instead, the judge merely rejected Disney\u2019s request to dismiss the case at the earliest stage. The two sides will now proceed toward discovery and an eventual trial, where the band will need to fully prove its claims.<\/p>\n

\n\tA spokesperson for Disney did not immediately return a request for comment.<\/p>\n

\n\tKaren Willis, the wife of Village People lead singer Victor Willis, filed the case in September, claiming that Disney had broken the law by \u201coutright refusing to seriously consider the group\u201d for bookings at the Orlando theme park: \u201cThis unfair business practice by Disney denied Village People an opportunity to fairly compete for a slot to perform at Disney,\u201d the complaint read.<\/p>\n

\n\tThough the case targets Disney, the lawsuit appears to be rooted in a dispute between members of the original Village People lineup over who gets to perform under the iconic name.<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to court filings, Willis returned to the group in 2017 and formed a \u201cre-vamped version\u201d of the Village People \u2014 in the process, replacing an existing lineup that had been touring under the name for years. The case claims that the earlier iteration, featuring two other original members, \u201cdid not go away quietly,\u201d and that they \u201ctook offense\u201d when Willis\u2019 Village People took over their existing slot at Disney World for a series of 2018 performances.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter the spurned members allegedly contacted Disney to complain and \u201cstarted a campaign\u201d against the new band, the lawsuit claims that Disney \u201cengaged in a series of outrageous and egregious conduct,\u201d including failing to provide security and refusing to properly pay them.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter Willis complained about being \u201ctreated very badly\u201d during the new band\u2019s 2018 run at the park, the lawsuit claims, Disney has since refused to rebook the group \u2014 imposing an effective ban on performing at the theme park. The lawsuit includes claims of breach of contract, unfair competition, fraud and conspiracy.<\/p>\n

\n\tAhead of last week\u2019s ruling, Disney had argued that the case must be tossed out under California\u2019s so-called anti-SLAPP provision \u2014 a law designed to quickly dismiss meritless lawsuits that threaten free speech. The studio argued that deciding which concerts to book was a form of constitutionally protected free speech rights and that they had the legal right to refuse to book the Village People.<\/p>\n

\n\tThough Disney could very well still defeat the lawsuit, Judge Bacal ruled on Friday that the company had failed to meet the specific legal requirements to use the anti-SLAPP law. In particular, the judge said Disney had failed to show that the dispute in the case was linked to the kind of \u201cpublic conversation\u201d that\u2019s protected under the statute.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere is no indication that defendants\u2019 statements entered the public sphere,\u201d the judge wrote. \u201cDefendants have not shown that the alleged statements contributed to or furthered the public conversation on an issue of public interest.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A California judge is refusing \u2014 for now \u2014 to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Village People against Disney that claims the Hollywood giant blackballed the legendary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[524,2184,423,303,2183,1849,2182,190],"class_list":["post-1536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-ban","tag-disney","tag-judge","tag-lawsuit","tag-peoples","tag-proceed","tag-village","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}