SANTA ANA – A federal judge has awarded $8,000 to a quadriplegic man who was stuck on Disney’s “It’s a Small World” for about 30 minutes after the ride broke down.

U.S. District Judge James Selna, who had dismissed the bulk of the suit brought by Jose Martinez and his wife Christina Buchanan-Martinez, ruled Friday after a bench trial that Disney “should have known that there was a likelihood of harm to a disabled person as reflected in its own standards for that ride.”

Disney officials said in a statement that “Disneyland Resort believes it provided all appropriate assistance to Mr. and Mrs. Martinez when the ride temporarily stopped and is disappointed that the court did not fully agree.”

Martinez’s attorney David Geffen said Wednesday his clients were on their first visit to the amusement park on Nov. 27, 2009, expecting to have fun, and got on the It’s a Small World ride.

The ride had broken down twice earlier that day and did again after Martinez, who uses a wheelchair, and Buchanan-Martinez were on it, Geffen said.

Martinez “was stuck in the cave of the ‘goodbye room’ with the music blaring, other people being evacuated and he was requesting they would move his boat a little bit so he could get out of the cave,” Geffen said.

“He immediately told them he has panic attacks and that he takes medications … they had no way to evacuate,” he said, adding Martinez needed to use the restroom and suffers from dysreflexia, which elevates blood pressure to dangerous levels.

Disney employees did not give a warning specifically developed for those who could not evacuate in the event of ride stoppage, he said. Had Martinez known in advance, he could have chosen not to ride or could have used a restroom beforehand, Geffen said.

Selna found Disney “had a duty to give an adequate warning and did not do so.” In an operating manual, “Disney expressly recognized the potential for harm or inconvenience to a disabled guest,” he said.

The judge previously granted Disney’s motion to dismiss most of Martinez’s case alleging Disney did not have adequate evacuation procedures in place for the disabled.

“I find a breach of the common-law duty to provide safe premises,” Selna said Friday. “I find that the breach caused harm to Mr. Martinez in that he was stuck on the ride. I find he was further harmed by not having the option to make an informed decision as to whether he wanted to take the ride, notwithstanding the possibility of inconvenience in the event of an outage.”

Contact the writer: 714-834-3773 or vjolly@ocregister.com