The City of New York has agreed to pay some 19,000 taxi drivers as much as $140 million to settle an 18-year-long civil rights lawsuit. The cab drivers say the City’s Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC) had for years summarily suspended drivers’ licenses, solely because of drivers’ arrests – not convictions – and usually on misdemeanor charges. The drivers were theoretically permitted post-suspension hearings to gain reinstatement. But apparently, no driver was ever reinstated through the hearing process, leading a federal appeals court to hold that the hearings were “essentially shams that denied the cabbies due process of law,” according to an article in Morningstar.
The case, which was first filed in 2006, challenged the TLC’s practice of suspending drivers who were arrested, mostly for off-duty conduct. In most cases, the charges were ultimately dismissed, but not until the drivers were forced out of work for months. The settlement must still be approved by Judge Richard J. Sullivan, a federal appeals court judge.
To prevail, the drivers had to win two trials and appeals. The most recent was a 2023 jury trial on behalf of 10 drivers selected at random. The jury found that all 10 drivers would have been reinstated had a fair hearing been available, awarding the drivers an average of more than $20,000 each.
Source: Morningstar
