Uber Found Not Guilty In First Of Many Sexual Assault Lawsuits

Uber was recovered not responsible by a California assemblage for an intersexual battle that a female said occurred during a 2016 ride, The New York Times reported. It's nan first of what could beryllium thousands of akin lawsuits successful nan US from women who declare they were "kidnapped, sexually assaulted, sexually battered, raped, falsely imprisoned, stalked, harassed, aliases different attacked" by Uber drivers, according to nan original claim. The cases were consolidated, meaning they tin beryllium presented earlier nan aforesaid judge pinch akin procedural processes, while still being tried individually.

The female successful nan first case, identified arsenic Jessica C., said she was an 18-year-old assemblage student erstwhile she ordered a thrust to San Jose's airport. Shortly aft she sewage in, nan driver deviated from his way and climbed connected apical of her, groped and kissed her and tried to region her pants, according to her testimony. The unfortunate told nan driver "No, no, no" and tried to push him off. She feared for her life and later dropped retired of school, while suffering from post-traumatic accent upset owed to nan assault.

Under California law, Uber would beryllium responsible for nan harm suffered by nan female if it grounded to usage capable information measures and that negligence was a "substantial factor" successful causing nan harm. Conversely, for Uber to not beryllium responsible, nan assemblage would request to find that Uber didn't cognize and could not person expected that its driver would return advantage of nan business that it created.

The assemblage ruled that while Uber was negligent, that negligence was not a important facet successful causing harm to Jessica C. However, nan plaintiff's lawyer said that nan tribunal allowed grounds into nan proceedings that fto Uber blasted Jessica C. for nan harm she faced, adding that nan determination discourages victims of intersexual battle to travel forward. "[It's a] sad time for victims of intersexual maltreatment crossed nan country," said John Taylor of Taylor & Ring.

Jessica C.'s lawyers accused Uber of covering up nan standard of its intersexual battle problem, revealing during find that 558,000+ trips had resulted successful reports of intersexual battle aliases misconduct from 2017 to 2024, acold much than what was publically reported. They besides said that nan institution grounded to put systems successful spot for illustration mandatory video signaling that could person protected passengers.

Uber said that nan driver successful Jessica C.'s lawsuit had passed inheritance checks and didn't trigger immoderate alarms complete past complaints. The institution said that contempt deploying galore information measures, it couldn't guarantee that driver transgressions would ne'er occur, and that it wasn't responsible for driver misconduct successful immoderate case. Uber's information head, Gus Fuldner, testified during nan proceedings that passengers utilized nan work astatine their ain risk.

Uber told nan NYT that its activity "to amended information connected our level is ne'er done. Uber has worked for years to raise nan barroom connected safety, and we’ll proceed to do truthful successful nan years ahead."