Uber is not taking a $5,000 loss lightly. The company has asked a federal appeals court to toss out a Charlotte jury’s decision ordering it to pay a North Carolina woman after her driver grabbed her upper inner thigh during a 2019 ride. The notice of appeal, filed last Tuesday in the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, challenges both the verdict and the trial judge’s instructions about when the company can be held liable for a driver’s actions. The dispute is one of several bellwether trials in a sprawling multidistrict case that groups thousands of passenger claims against Uber.
How the Charlotte trial played out
During a weeklong trial in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, Brianna Mensing testified that her Uber driver grabbed her upper inner thigh as she was getting out of the car in March 2019, according to the Charlotte Observer. The jury decided that contact amounted to battery and awarded Mensing $5,000 after U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer told jurors that, under North Carolina law, a rideshare company can be treated like a common carrier and held responsible for drivers’ assaults. The driver was never criminally charged, and Mensing declined to comment further after the verdict.
Court record and judgment
Federal court records show that on April 20, a judgment was entered for $5,000 in favor of the plaintiff. Documents obtained by Justia reflect the signed judgment. Coverage by the Associated Press notes that the case was selected as a bellwether for the larger litigation over passenger claims against Uber.
Uber says it will appeal
Uber filed its appeal on May 19 and told the Charlotte Observer that the verdict was “the product of multiple legal errors.” The company argues that the judge’s conclusion about when a rideshare company can be treated like a common carrier conflicts with longstanding North Carolina law. A company safety spokesperson also criticized certain evidentiary rulings, saying they gave jurors a one-sided view of the facts, and signaled that Uber plans to press those arguments hard at the appellate level.
Why the bellwethers matter
Lawyers on both sides are watching these early trials closely for clues about settlement leverage and which legal theories might survive on appeal. In February, a federal jury in Arizona awarded $8.5 million to a woman who said an Uber driver raped her - a ruling that Bloomberg Law reported could influence thousands of similar claims. The multidistrict litigation overseen by Judge Breyer already includes thousands of passenger suits, according to reporting by the Associated Press.
Legal implications and what judges will consider
On appeal, judges are expected to focus on whether the trial court correctly explained North Carolina’s common-carrier law to the jury and whether the evidentiary rulings improperly shaped how jurors saw the case. If the Fourth Circuit reverses, it could narrow the paths for passengers to hold Uber responsible for alleged assaults by drivers. If it affirms, plaintiffs’ lawyers would gain additional leverage in the multidistrict litigation and more confidence that similar verdicts around the country might stand up on appeal.
What’s next
The Fourth Circuit will set a briefing schedule and then decide whether to uphold the judgment, vacate it, or send the case back for more proceedings. Expect a fresh round of filings and docket activity in the coming weeks as Uber and Mensing lay out their arguments and the broader Uber passenger litigation moves toward more test trials and potential settlements.
