Every time we think things can’t possibly get any worse for Uber, the universe proves us wrong.
A Texas woman, identified as Jane Doe, has filed a lawsuit against Uber, CEO Travis Kalanick and former executives Emil Michael and Eric Alexander in Federal District Court for the Northern District of California, for intrusion into private affairs, public disclosure of private facts and defamation, The New York Times reports.
The suit alleges that the current and former executives obtained her medical records after she was raped in 2014 by an Uber driver, Shiv Kumar Yadav, in New Dehli. Yadav is serving a life sentence for the incident, but Kalanick, Michael and Alexander reportedly believed she was hired by a rival company to hinder Uber’s progress in India, and tried to use her records to discredit her account.
“Only by discrediting Jane Doe’s account of what happened, including her medical records about the rape, could Kalanick, Alexander and Michael have contrived such an irrational and fictitious story about a rival ride-sharing company being involved in her rape account,” Douglas Wigdor, her attorney, said in the filing, via The Times.
After word got out that the three individuals allegedly obtained Doe’s records, Uber terminated Alexander. Michael also has since left the company, and Kalanick has taken a leave of absence, though those moves were per the recommendations of an independent report.
“No one should have to go through a horrific experience like this, and we’re truly sorry that she’s had to relive it over the last few weeks,” an Uber spokesman told The Times on Thursday.
Wigdor said he hopes this lawsuit, in combination with the recently released report on Uber’s culture of sexual discrimination spark change at the company.
Thumbnail photo via Flickr/johnwatsonphotography
