Walt Disney World Co. v. Wood, 489 So. 2d 61 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1986) is a court decision by the Florida District Court of Appeal illustrating the principle of joint and several liability when combined with comparative negligence.
In 1971, Aloysia Wood was injured on the Grand Prix bumper-car ride at Walt Disney World when her then-fiance, Daniel Wood, rammed his car into the rear of hers. The jury assessed her damages at $75,000. The jury then returned a verdict finding Aloysia Wood 14% at fault, Daniel Wood 85% at fault, and Disney 1% at fault. The court (under the doctrine of joint and several liability) then ordered Disney to pay 86% of the damages - its percentage plus the husband's percentage - because the husband was unable to pay his portion.
This case is sometimes cited in calls for tort reform.
Famous quotes containing the words walt, world and/or wood:
“In his very rejection of art Walt Whitman is an artist. He tried to produce a certain effect by certain means and he succeeded.... He stands apart, and the chief value of his work is in its prophecy, not in its performance. He has begun a prelude to larger themes. He is the herald to a new era. As a man he is the precursor of a fresh type. He is a factor in the heroic and spiritual evolution of the human being. If Poetry has passed him by, Philosophy will take note of him.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“The historian must have ... some conception of how men who are not historians behave. Otherwise he will move in a world of the dead. He can only gain that conception through personal experience, and he can only use his personal experiences when he is a genius.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)
“It is not night when I do see your face,
Therefore I think I am not in the night;
Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company,
For you, in my respect, are all the world.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)