Female Drivers File Multi-Million Dollar Whistleblower and Class Action Suit Against Lyft Alleging Stalking, Intimidation, Assault, and Defamation
CHICAGO, IL (PRWEB) March 14, 2017 -- Three veteran Lyft Drivers recently filed a complaint against Lyft, Inc., in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, Chancery Division (2017-CH-01825). The three Plaintiffs, Beth Kingsbury, Jill Koenig, and Savannah Williams, represented by the law firm Robbins, Salomon, & Patt, Ltd., are seeking injunctive and other relief from the California-based car service, Lyft, Inc., and eight individual defendants: Allison Clark, Keegan Kok, Mattia Nanfria, Emma Fine, Lamont Campbell, Sr., David Todd AKA David Todd Perelmutter, Christopher Wojnar, and Michael Elrod.
Court documents allege that despite the Plaintiffs' high performance and dedication to the company, Lyft, through its employees and agents, spread the word that the Plaintiffs were high earners and allowed an environment detrimental to their ability to fairly earn compensation without interference. In the filing, it is alleged that Lyft intentionally ignored company policy, encouraging and allowing Lyft personnel and other Ambassadors to stalk, harass, spy on, ambush, intimidate, and freeze out the Plaintiffs while they were out on the street soliciting referrals. Court documents allege that in addition to the stalking and harassment, Defendants defamed the women so that they would lose respect in the eyes of the community, especially the Lyft community, and that due to the Defendants’ false statements, Plaintiffs were shut out from exclusive events and lost business opportunities while Defendants continued to receive those same opportunities.
According to court documents, the individual Defendants interfered with and obstructed the Plaintiffs’ ability to earn commissions and intentionally engaged in intimidating and aggressive behavior towards them by following them, finding out where they were working and inciting others to appear there, jumping out of cars and aggressively approaching them, surrounding them, standing within inches of them, boxing them in, upstreaming, and otherwise obstructing their ability to pass out their referral cards. Court documents allege that on one occasion, one of the individual Defendants assaulted Koenig, forcing her against a wall in a threatening manner.
According to court documents, the women followed Lyft’s own protocol, reported the harassment, providing evidence which included Facebook threats to harm them and body cam footage of the assaults, to Critical Response Hotline/Lyft Trust and Safety no less than 7 times from May 2016 to December 2016, and that the women also followed Lyft’s instructions for contacting the police when they felt unsafe. Court documents allege that Lyft failed to protect the women or correct the wrongdoing, and that rather than deactivating the accounts of the Ambassadors that were harassing the women on the street, as Lyft originally assured the Plaintiffs was appropriate and necessary, Lyft instead deactivated the Plaintiff's accounts within days of the assaults being reported to the Chicago Police Department. Court documents allege this was done to them in retaliation, all while the Defendants were allowed to continue working and earning money with the company. Lyft's counsel allegedly informed the Plaintiff's counsel that due to the police report, Plaintiffs were deactivated and no longer able to work for Lyft.
According to court documents, Lyft violated the Illinois Whistleblower Act in that Lyft retaliated against Plaintiffs for disclosing information to a government or law enforcement agency, and that, in a clear violation of public policy, they were wrongfully discharged from Lyft for reporting illegal conduct to authorities.
Lawsuit Charges
1. Breach of contract
2. Violations of IL Whistleblower
3. Accounting
4. Tortious Interference with a Prospective Economic Advantage
5. Wrongful Suspension/Discharge
6. Defamation Per Se
7. Assault
8. Conspiracy
9. Violations of IL Stalking Act
10. Violation of Fair Labor Standards Act
11. Violation of IL Wage Payment and Collection Act
Contact Info: (312) 967-6745 info (at) lyftlawsuit.com http://www.LyftLawsuit.com
Steve Platt, Attorney, Robbins, Salomon & Patt, http://www.LyftLawsuit.com, +1 312-967-6745, [email protected]
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