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Uber must pay $40 million to the parents of a woman who was struck and killed after an Uber driver left her on an Orange County freeway in 2023, an arbitrator has ruled.
The arbitrator rejected Uber’s arguments that California’s Proposition 22 — a voter-approved law written by Uber and other gig companies that cemented drivers’ status as independent contractors, not employees — shields it from liability for a driver’s actions.
“Prop. 22 does not immunize Uber from vicarious liability” for the wrongdoing of its drivers, Richard Stone, a retired judge who served as the arbitrator, wrote in his July arbitration award. Vicarious liability is indirect liability for the actions of another, such as in instances where the parties have a legal relationship.
In his earlier ruling in March, Stone wrote that when California voters passed Prop. 22 in 2020, they could not have intended to do away with Uber’s liability for its drivers’ actions. He noted that the language in the ballot proposition urging voters to approve it referred to classifying drivers as independent contractors, meaning they would not get standard benefits and protections like employees would.
“There is no reference in key voter materials to the liability of app-based transportation companies,” Stone wrote. “Not a word.”
On Aug. 12, 2023, Uber driver Vu Tran picked up Emily Normandin-Parker and her friend, Luna Moore, from a bar. When Moore started throwing up in the car, Tran stopped at a gore point — the small, triangular area at the off-ramp — on State Route 73.
As Tran and Moore argued, Normandin-Parker, 23, was struck and killed after wandering into traffic because she was inebriated, according to the ruling. Stone wrote that it was hard to determine exactly what happened because the testimony of both Moore and Tran was not entirely credible.
Normandin-Parker’s parents and Moore sued Tran and Uber in Orange County Superior Court in September 2023, and the parties agreed to arbitration. Stone awarded Normandin-Parker’s parents, Carol Normandin and Ken Parker, $20 million each, and Moore $300,000.
Uber reported revenue of more than $14 billion and net income of more than $2 billion in its second quarter that ended in June.
Uber spokesperson Gabriela Condarco-Quesada told CalMatters that the company disagrees with the decision.
“We believe the arbitrator was wrong in holding Uber legally responsible for the tragic events of that night,” she said, citing Prop. 22. Uber, along with companies such as DoorDash, Lyft and Instacart, spent more than $200 million on the ballot initiative.
She also said the company’s “thoughts continue to be with the Normandin-Parker family.”
Parker pushed back on what he called a spin campaign by Uber, noting that the company tried to keep them from talking about the arbitrator’s award.
“Their thoughts have never been with us,” he told CalMatters on Thursday, the day he and Normandin appeared on Good Morning America to discuss the case and the death of their daughter, a UCLA graduate.
Parker said Uber has never apologized or acknowledged responsibility, and that throughout the arbitration process the company was “at best aloof and at worst distastefully crass.”
In a November filing, the company argued the incident “was the result of Moore and Normandin-Parker’s extreme intoxication, which was existent because of Moore’s and Normandin-Parker’s intentional conduct — not Tran’s driving.”
The award will help fund the Emily Normandin-Parker Foundation, which her parents created last year. Part of the foundation’s mission will be to hold corporations accountable, particularly in the ride-hailing industry, Parker said. He said that might come through advocacy in legislation, regulations or the “court of public opinion.”
The arbitrator also rejected Uber’s argument that it is not a common carrier that transports people or goods, but a transportation network company because it’s licensed as such by the Public Utilities Code.
Stone wrote that Uber could be subject to both public utility rules and a non-transferable legal duty for safety as a common carrier at the same time, citing other cases in which the company was deemed to be a common carrier.
Further, he said another California law, Proposition 51, does not apply in this case. Prop. 51 limits liability for non-economic damages to a defendant’s proportionate share of fault. Stone said Uber is 100% responsible for the driver’s actions.
Lawyers for Normandin-Parker’s parents said evidence presented during the arbitration showed Uber had received previous complaints about Tran's driving.
Uber said in a filing that Tran had a valid driver’s license and passed its background check, and that the company had no duty to train Tran beyond that because he was an independent contractor. The company spokesperson said this week that Tran, who can no longer drive for Uber, had completed thousands of trips without any unsafe drop-offs, freeway stops or rider injury.
CalMatters contacted the law firm that represented Tran but did not immediately receive a response.
Stone wrote that he hopes Uber “will learn from this tragic incident … and change the pertinent policies and procedures accordingly. Should it fail to do so, it no doubt engages in that approach at its own substantial risk.”
This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.
