Judge unlikely to let Uber out of driver rape lawsuit

(credit: Uber)

Last year, Uber was sued by two women who said they were sexually attacked by drivers. On Friday, an Uber lawyer tried to convince a US federal judge to throw out the lawsuit, but she was unconvinced.

"The job being performed has nothing to do with the act," Uber attorney Josh Cohen said, according to a report in Courthouse News. Cohen tried to walk a fine line, saying that Uber is merely a "facilitator of transportation" and not a transportation company.

US District Judge Susan Ilston brought up a 1956 case called Berger v. Southern Pacific, which involved a female passenger who was raped by a porter on a Pullman train car. It was a case brought up by neither the plaintiffs nor the defendants, and at the Friday hearing, both sides didn't even seem to be aware of the case, according to a report from The Recorder.

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