A man is suing Uber Technologies Inc., alleging that a driver he hired to take him to his home transported him instead to skid row in Los Angeles, where he was beaten and robbed.
Frank Silva’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleges assault, battery, negligence and both intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress.
Silva is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages from Uber, the driver — identified in the complaint filed Monday only as Samuel Doe — and several other unknown “Does” who he says attacked him after he was pulled from the vehicle.
A representative of the ride-hailing company could not be immediately reached for comment.
The suit states that Silva put in a pick-up request with Uber about 2:15 a.m. on March 20, 2016, asking that he be taken from the 300 block of South Broadway in downtown Los Angeles to Downey, a trip of about 11 miles.
The driver picked Silva up about 2:20 a.m., and several minutes later, he was “taken out of the Uber vehicle” at Wall and Fifth streets, where he was “assaulted, battered and abandoned in the street,” according to his court papers.
Silva “experienced a beating by several people” and was “punched, kicked and hit in the head, face, chest and rib area,” the suit states.
Silva says he was “robbed of his personal property, including his iPhone,” and suffered both physical and emotional injuries from his ordeal.
The Uber driver was negligently hired and was unfit for his position, according to the lawsuit.
—City News Service
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