A New Jersey woman taking a Lyft to work in Manhattan was traumatized when her “despicable” driver allegedly whipped out his manhood and urinated in a plastic container during the trip.
The woman, identified in court papers as Jane Doe, said she called the Lyft just after 8 a.m. to get from her Fort Lee, NJ home to her job at Mount Sinai West in Midtown in March.
The driver “took his penis out of his pants and began urinating in a plastic container … somewhere on a public road on the westside of Manhattan,” the woman claimed in her Manhattan Supreme Court filing against Lyft and driver.
It left her shocked and angry and caused lasting depression and other psychological and emotional distress, she said.
The alleged “public lewdness and exposure of himself” amounts to a sexual assault, Jane Doe contended. The driver, identified only as “Luis,” had the “apparent ability to cause imminent harmful or offensive bodily contact” through the “lewd act,” she argued in the court documents.
The conduct was “so outrageous, shocking, despicable, and contemptible that it exceeds … reasonable bounds of decency,” she said in court papers.
The San Francisco-based company was negligent for hiring Luis and failing to protect riders from “sexual predators,” she claims.
The lawsuit also accuses the company of failing to “[recognize] signs that [Luis] was using his position to expose himself to passengers.”
Lyft’s “aggressive policy of promising its drivers … fast and generous compensation” caused “inattention” and “distraction” by the driver and “unsafe and hazardous conditions” on the roads, she also alleged.
Jane Doe wants to remain anonymous to avoid not only embarrassment, but “the social stigmatization associated with having been sexually assaulted,” and continues to feel “shame and anxiety,” according to court papers in which she asks the court to shield her name.
The woman is seeking unspecified damages.
The woman’s lawyer and Lyft did not respond to inquiries from The Post.
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