9th Circuit Appeals Court rules rideshare companies must protect drivers from attacks
Sep 1, 2024, 1:20 PM | Updated: Sep 3, 2024, 9:35 am
9th U.S. District Court of Appeals ruling could protect rideshare drivers from dangerous passengers.
A federal appeals court ruling may help protect Uber and Lyft drivers from being violently attacked by passengers.
According to The Seattle Times, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled, 2-1, that rideshare companies must make adequate background checks of customers, due to a “special relationship” they have with drivers.
The case stems from a lawsuit filed by the family of an Uber driver stabbed to death in Issaquah in 2020.
The driver, 28-year-old Cherno “Che” Ceesay, died on December 13, 2020, after being stabbed to death by passengers in his vehicle.
A Nevada couple pleaded guilty to murder and manslaughter after the attack.
The 9th Circuit ruled Uber failed to warn Ceesay the couple had opened an account using a fake name and an unverified form of payment, minutes before he was killed.
In court documents, attorneys for Ceesay’s family argued Uber “failed to employ basic identity-verification technology” to screen out customers who could pose a risk to drivers, despite having “developed and commercialized some of the most sophisticated data collection and analysis in the world.”
The case stems from a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Ceesay’s family three years ago.
The three-judge panel’s ruling Friday was a response to an appeal of the lawsuit. The court weighed in on an interpretation of Washington liability law after the Washington Supreme Court declined to answer a request from Ceesay’s family to clarify the statute.
The decision reversed a ruling by a U.S. District Court judge. The Times reports Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Richard Paez and Circuit Judge Jacqueline Nguyen wrote the majority opinion.
The ruling also criticized Senior U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Rothstein for improperly sealing several files in the case without proper findings.
The Times reports U.S. Circuit Judge Patrick Bumatay wrote in a dissenting opinion the ruling “fashion[s] a new expansive tort liability” in Washington state that could lead to “broad-ranging consequences” for the gig economy.
An email sent by the Times seeking comment from Uber’s attorneys in Irvine, Calif., did not receive an immediate response.
Tom Brock is an editor, anchor and reporter for KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of his stories here.
