News

Actions

Uber moves to settle rape victim’s lawsuit

Posted at 2:31 PM, Dec 09, 2017
and last updated 2017-12-09 16:31:59-05

By Jackie Wattles, CNN Money

Uber has agreed to settle with a woman who sued the company for the way it behaved after she was raped by an Uber driver in India.

She claims executives there obtained her private medical records following the 2014 rape. In addition to claiming invasion of privacy, Jane Doe alleges Uber executives defamed her by suggesting her rape claim may be an attempt to sabotage Uber orchestrated by its Indian competitor, Ola.

“Uber executives duplicitously and publicly decried the rape, expressing sympathy for plaintiff, and shock and regret at the violent attack, while privately speculating, as outlandish as it is, that she had colluded with a rival company to harm Uber’s business,” the lawsuit said.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Related: SoftBank deal would cut Uber valuation by at least 20%

The alleged misdeeds by Uber came to light via a Recode report inJune. Jane Doe filed the suit shortly after.

According to a court document filed Friday, the woman, who is referred to only as Jane Doe, and Uber representatives met for private mediation in September.

Because settlement terms were agreed on, the case will disappear from the court system “in or around January 2018,” according to the document.

Uber declined to comment, and representatives for Jane Doe did not immediately respond to an inquiry.

The deal marks the end of years of court battles spurred by the rape.

The assailant, Uber driver Shiv Kumar Yadav, was convicted of four charges related to the crime in 2015. He’s serving alife sentence.

Police in India said Yadav’s address and background weren’t verified in his driver registration, raising questions about how Uber approved him for the job.

The victim filed a suit against Uber in 2015, for negligence and fraud, which the parties settled eight months later. The details of that deal were also kept secret.

The scandal gained new life in June when the Recode report published.

An Uber executive, President of Business in Asia Pacific Eric Alexander, reportedly obtained Jane Doe’s medical records and shared the documents with other executives — including former CEO Travis Kalanick.

Both men were named in Jane Doe’s lawsuit, but neither Alexander nor Kalanick could be immediately reached for comment Saturday.

Related: What we know about Uber’s massive hack

Alexander is no longer with the company, Uber confirmed.

Kalanick stepped down as CEO in June, but he remains on Uber’s board of directors.

His departure from the C-Suite came after a seemingly endless string of PR disasters.

Most notably, following reports of sexual harassment at the company, Uber hired former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate the company’s office culture. Among his recommendations for the company was reevaluating Kalanick’s position.

–CNN’s Rishi Iyengar and Sara Ashley O’Brien contributed to this report.