An arbitrator has ordered Uber to pay $40 million to the parents of a young Orange County woman who was struck and killed on a Southern California freeway after her Uber driver left her stranded on the roadside, rejecting the company’s attempt to use California’s gig-worker law as a shield against liability.
The case centers on the death of Emily Normandin-Parker, a 23-year-old UCLA graduate, who was killed in August 2023 on State Route 73 after wandering into traffic while intoxicated. According to the arbitration findings, driver Vu Tran had picked up Normandin-Parker and her friend, Luna Moore, from a bar. When Moore became sick in the vehicle, Tran pulled over at a gore point — the narrow triangular strip of pavement near a freeway off-ramp — where an argument broke out between Tran and Moore. During the confrontation, Normandin-Parker stepped into traffic and was fatally struck.
Retired judge Richard Stone, who oversaw the arbitration, said conflicting and at times questionable testimony from both Tran and Moore made it difficult to reconstruct the exact sequence of events that night.
Normandin-Parker’s parents, Carol Normandin and Ken Parker, along with Moore, sued both Tran and Uber in Orange County Superior Court in September 2023. The parties later agreed to settle the dispute through arbitration rather than a jury trial. In his ruling issued this summer, Stone awarded $20 million each to Normandin and Parker, and $300,000 to Moore.
A central issue in the case was whether Proposition 22 — the 2020 ballot measure funded by Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and other gig-economy companies that classified drivers as independent contractors rather than employees — also protected Uber from being held responsible for a driver’s negligent conduct. Stone determined that it did not.
In his written decision, Stone said nothing in the ballot language presented to voters ahead of the 2020 election suggested that approving Prop. 22 would also eliminate ride-hailing companies’ liability for harm caused by their drivers. The measure, he wrote, focused on employment classification and benefits, not corporate accountability for a driver’s actions on the road.
“There is no reference in key voter materials to the liability of app-based transportation companies,” Stone wrote. “Not a word.”
The arbitrator also dismissed Uber’s argument that the company should be treated strictly as a “transportation network company” under the state’s Public Utilities Code rather than as a common carrier, which carries a stricter legal duty to ensure passenger safety. Stone noted that courts have previously found ride-hailing companies can be classified as common carriers even while also being regulated as transportation network companies. He further ruled that Proposition 51 — which normally limits a defendant’s liability to their proportional share of fault — did not apply here, concluding Uber bore full responsibility for its driver’s conduct.
Uber has denied wrongdoing and says it plans to contest the ruling. Company spokesperson Gabriela Condarco-Quesada said Uber does not believe it should be held legally responsible for what happened that night, pointing again to Prop. 22 as legal protection. She added that the company’s “thoughts continue to be with the Normandin-Parker family.”
Ken Parker rejected that characterization, telling CalMatters that Uber has never taken responsibility or apologized to the family. He described the company’s conduct throughout the legal process as dismissive, saying Uber attempted to prevent the family from publicly discussing the arbitrator’s decision. Parker and Normandin spoke publicly about their daughter’s death this week on Good Morning America.
In earlier court filings, Uber argued that the tragedy stemmed from the extreme intoxication of Normandin-Parker and Moore rather than any failure on the part of the driver. The company also said Tran held a valid driver’s license and had cleared Uber’s background screening process, adding that because he was an independent contractor, the company had no further obligation to provide additional training. Uber said this week that Tran, who no longer drives for the platform, had completed thousands of trips without previous incidents involving unsafe drop-offs or rider injuries.
Attorneys representing Normandin-Parker’s parents said evidence introduced during arbitration showed Uber had received prior complaints regarding Tran’s driving behavior before the fatal incident.
Uber reported more than $14 billion in revenue and upward of $2 billion in net income during its most recent quarter, which ended in June.
Parker said the settlement funds will support the Emily Normandin-Parker Foundation, established by the family last year in their daughter’s memory. He said the foundation intends to push for greater corporate accountability within the ride-hailing industry, potentially through legislative advocacy, regulatory reform or public pressure campaigns.
In closing his ruling, Stone expressed hope that Uber would use the case as an opportunity for reflection and reform.
“I hope that Uber will learn from this tragic incident … and change the pertinent policies and procedures accordingly,” he wrote. “Should it fail to do so, it no doubt engages in that approach at its own substantial risk.”
CalMatters reached out to the law firm representing Tran but had not received a response as of publication.
Original source: CalMatters
