PHOENIX (CN) - Uber says it can't be held liable for sexual assaults committed by its drivers, because drivers don't work for Uber, but rather are third-party contractors that use Uber's platform to provide rideshare services. 

"A driver is not an Uber driver," Uber's director of U.S. city operations Chad Dobbs said in a Phoenix courtroom Tuesday afternoon. "They are a driver who chooses to use the Uber service."

Defending his employer from one of thousands of pending sexual assault liability lawsuits pending in federal court, Dobbs said common misconceptions about Uber's employment practices shape a narrative that the company has more control than it really does. 

Uber does not hire drivers directly, he said. 

"There's no partnership," Dobbs said. "No agency that exists."

Instead, Uber provides a platform for drivers to offer rideshare services to customers while Uber collects a portion of the fare, he said. 

Thanks to this business model, Uber says it can't be held accountable for driver behaviors that already violate Uber's technology services agreement, like the company's zero tolerance "no sex" policy.

Jaylynn Dean sued Uber in November 2023 soon after her driver raped her in the back of his car. Though Uber's policies make it clear that the driver, Hassan Turay, was not an agent for Uber at the time, Dean could prove to the jury the presence of "apparent agency." 

If the jury finds that Dean reasonably assumed that Turay was an employee of Uber and therefore Uber was responsible for keeping Dean safe from Turay, then it can still find Uber liable for the assault. 

Dean claims, among other things, that Uber should have implemented more stringent background checks that could have prevented her assault and assaults on other passengers. 

In her opening statement, Dean's attorney Deborah Chang said Uber asked for no references, proof of prior work, a resume or a fingerprint when hiring Turay, and did no social media or Google searches on him.

"I think that's a gross mischaracterization," Dobbs said Tuesday. "The background checks are real. Uber does things that are above and beyond what is required by Arizona state law."

Uber's standard background check includes criminal records, motor vehicle records, sex offender registries and civil complaints, but does not include time spent in foreign countries. 

Dobbs and Uber attorney Kim Bueno began discussing Hassan Turay's personal driving record when Dean's counsel objected, prompting U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer to excuse the jury for the day. The plaintiff's attorneys complained that his testimony to Turay's record, as well as what Arizona law requires of Uber, was never disclosed to them. They would have conducted initial discovery on those issues if they had been informed, they said.

Breyer, a Bill Clinton appointee, said Dobbs' opinions on state law amount to "impermissible expert testimony" from a witness disclosed only to discuss Uber's third-party contractor policies. 

Bueno said she plans to continue cross examining Dobbs on Wednesday, though it's unclear what questions she will be allowed to ask without providing the plaintiffs with additional documents and the opportunity to depose him outside of court. 

Still pending before Breyer is Uber's motion for reconsideration of its motion for a mistrial. 

Uber filed the motion last week after Dean's attorney Sarah London brought up a woman named Jennifer Chase who was banned from Uber after making multiple nearly identical complaints against different drivers in an apparent attempt to be refunded from rides. London said Chase was a victim of domestic abuse and could have filed multiple complaints because her first complaint was never handled. 

While questioning another witness, London pointed to Chase in the courtroom and asked the witness if she believed Chase would show up to court if she were lying. 

Bueno said the suggestion that Chase was there to testify or that the defense could have called her but didn't is enough to prejudice the jury against them.

Breyer denied the motion but instructed the jury to disregard whether Chase was in the courtroom. Bueno said the instruction was insufficient.

"The first and only appropriate remedy here is a mistrial," Bueno said Tuesday afternoon. 

Alternatively, Bueno requested that Uber be allowed to depose and call Chase as a witness. Chase's attorney, Brian Panish, said Chase would plead the Fifth Amendment if called to testify.

London said she too would like to depose Chase to learn more about why she was let back onto the app after having been banned. 

Breyer didn't entertain the idea. 

"It's so collateral to the issues in this case that it doesn't warrant a full on exposition of who Jennifer was," he said. 

He said he will consider the formal motion to reconsider a mistrial but for now will instruct the jury to disregard any and all suggestions that Chase's complaints were truthful, that Uber allowed her back onto the platform, that she's a victim of domestic abuse, and that her claims are accurate based on the fact that she was present in the courtroom. 

Uber expects to wrap up its defense on Friday and make closing arguments on Monday.

Source: Courthouse News Service