Jury Finds Uber Liable for 2019 Driver Assault, Awards $5,000

A federal jury in Charlotte, North Carolina, found Uber liable on Monday for a 2019 incident in which one of its drivers grabbed a female passenger's inner thigh and asked if he could keep her with him, awarding the woman $5,000 in damages.

The verdict came at the end of a weeklong trial in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, marking the second loss for Uber in bellwether cases from a multidistrict litigation involving more than 3,000 similar lawsuits alleging sexual assault and misconduct by drivers. The plaintiff, Brianna Mensing, testified that the assault occurred during a late-night ride in Raleigh in March 2019, when she was 23 years old. As she prepared to exit the front seat upon arriving at her destination around 2 a.m., the driver reached out and touched her upper inner thigh for one to two seconds while making the comment, prompting her to flee the vehicle.

Mensing's attorneys argued that North Carolina law treats Uber as a common carrier, making the company responsible for the safety of its passengers and the actions of its drivers. U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer, overseeing the consolidated cases from California, ruled prior to...