Courts ruled in Disney's favor in a series of lawsuits between the company and a contractor engaged to renovate Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa back in 2019.
FloridaPolitics.com is reporting that courts recently ruled in Disney's favor, ordering Validus Construction Services to pay $3.5 million disputed Saratoga Springs room refurbishment project. Validus was secured back in 2019 to manage refurbishment on all 18 buildings within the resort. The project was billed as an extensive "hard goods" refurbishment which included new kitchens, bathroom updates, flooring and installation of the pull-down convertible sofa beds.
The project was slated to run from April 2019 to November 2020. By December 2019, only four of the buildings had been completed. That same month, guests were briefly instructed not to use the pull-down beds in refurbished rooms after reports of at least one unit coming detached from the wall.
Renovations were halted in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. One month later, Validus was later removed as project manager. In August 2020 they filed suit against Disney for breach of contract. Included in the suit were allegations that previously undiscovered fire code violations had driven up the cost and completion time of the project. Validus also made claims of harrassment by a Disney project manager.
Subcontractors allegedly went unpaid and Disney contracted with another vendor to complete the project, which wrapped up in Summer 2021.
During a 2024 court hearing, Disney attorney John Dannecker argued that Disney had paid money earmarked for contractors, which never reached them. Dannecker accused Validus of submitting false affidavits claiming that vendors had been paid.
Orange Circuit Court Judge Chad Alvaro dismissed Validus' $7 million lawsuit against Disney. Meanwhile Alvaro ruled in favor of Disney's suit, ordering Validus to pay $3.5 million of project funds that were unaccounted for.
Source: FloridaPolitics.com
