Delaware Vice Chancellor Lori Will has ruled that Walt Disney Co. was not out of line in opposing “Don’t Say Gay” legislation in Florida.
A Disney shareholder filed suit in Chancery, claiming that the company was not working in the interest of shareholders by opposing the legislation that limits school instruction on gender identity.
DeSantis said the legislation was in “the best interest of Florida citizens, not on the musing of woke corporations.”
The shareholder demanded “books and records” to determine if the company breached its duties. It’s a common demand made in shareholder suits.
The Florida bill has been fiercely opposed by the LGBTQ community but had support among socially conservative groups.
The battle with Disney escalated when the Legislature passed a later DeSantis bill that limited the company’s powers in a tax district in and around Disney World.
Disney responded by taking away the powers of a state board in governing the property.
Both DeSantis and Disney have traded lawsuits with the company halting a project that would have brought a couple of thousand jobs to Florida.
Will’s decision chronicled a turbulent period during the dispute that included Bob Chapek, the company’s CEO initially not responding to the Don’t Say Gay law and then later reversing that position amid employee and perhaps board pressure.
Chapek was ousted with Iger, a long-time Disney CEO in his 70s, taking his place.
Disney is based in California and incorporated in Delaware.
