Uber Driver Must Face Injury Claim for Picking Up Passenger 2 Feet From Curb

Uber and one of its New York drivers who failed to pull within a foot of the curb when picking up a passenger must face a negligence lawsuit after all.

A lower court had dismissed the negligence suit against Uber and the driver, Shahinoor Oji, but an appellate panel of the Supreme Court of New York on October 18 ruled that court was in error and revived the lawsuit.

The appellate panel noted that a common carrier owes a duty to a passenger to provide a reasonably safe place to board and disembark its vehicle. Also, New York law requires taxis and cars-for-hire to be within 12 inches of the curb when picking up or discharging passengers.

Antoinette Porcasi alleges she was injured while attempting to board Oji’s vehicle. She stepped off the curb into the street and tripped on a bulge in the street between the curb and the vehicle. The vehicle had been ordered through the Uber cell phone application.

On October 21, 2020, Porcasi sued to recover damages for personal injuries.

The appeals panel said the lower court should not have granted Uber and Oji summary judgment because they had failed to establish that Oji did not breach his duty to the plaintiff, as a common carrier, to provide a safe place to board the vehicle. Oji attested in his affidavit that he stopped his vehicle approximately two feet from the curb to pick up Porcasi, which would constitute a violation of the law.

Furthermore, the defendants failed to establish that Oji’s alleged negligence was not a proximate cause of the accident, as they failed to demonstrate that Oji’s alleged negligence merely furnished the occasion for the accident.

Since a factfinder could reasonably determine that the accident was a “natural and foreseeable consequence of the risk created by alleged negligence,” the issue should be submitted to a jury, the panel concluded.

Porcasi had also sought summary judgment that Oji’s alleged negligence proximately caused her injuries. But the appeals court agreed that the lower court properly denied her summary judgment on the issue of liability against Oji.

Topics Trends New York Personal Auto