Professor Horton Talks to CNN, 'Marketplace' About Disney Arbitration Controversy

Multiple media outlets have interviewed Professor David Horton about Disney’s attempt to send a wrongful death claim to arbitration.

Horton, who has written extensively on arbitration law, spoke to CNN, New York magazine, the public radio program Marketplace and the podcast A Little More Conversation about Disney’s argument that a lawsuit filed by a widower whose wife died in 2023 after dining at a restaurant at Disney World should be sent to arbitration.

Disney maintained that the man waived his right to sue when he signed up for a free trial of the Disney+ streaming service years ago and when he purchased tickets to Epcot in 2023 (tickets never used because the man’s wife died, CNN reported based on court filings).

The Aug. 16 CNN report relied heavily on Horton’s forthcoming Washington University Law Review article “Accidental Arbitration.”

On Aug. 20, Disney reversed course and said it would waive its right to arbitration in the wrongful-death case.

Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law David Horton's primary research and teaching interests are wills and trusts, contracts, and arbitration law.  In 2015, his article "In Partial Defense of Probate: Evidence from Alameda County, California" was selected as the winner of the 29th annual Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Scholarly Paper Competition and he was honored with UC Davis School of Law’s Distinguished Teaching Award.