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D.C.
Resident Announces Settlement In Race Discrimination
Lawsuit Filed
Against Local Taxicab Company
WASHINGTON,
DC – The Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban
Affairs and Hogan & Hartson L.L.P., announced today that D.C.
resident Bryan Greene has settled his race discrimination lawsuit
against Amritsar Auto Services Company,
LLC, whose DC-licensed cabs operate under the names Your Way and
Atlantic. Greene, a Director of Policy at the U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development, filed the lawsuit in 2001 in the
United States District Court for the District of Columbia, after
a Your Way cab driver failed to pick him up from a taxi stand in
front of a hotel in L’Enfant Plaza.
Among
other provisions, the settlement includes the requirement that taxicabs
display the company’s non-discrimination policy and that the company
advertise this policy in local newspapers. “The newspaper ads and
the signs in the cabs were the key to reaching this settlement,”
commented Greene, a 35-year-old resident of Adams-Morgan. “My hope
is that they will bring attention to the issue of taxicab discrimination
and put drivers and cab companies on notice that they will be held
responsible for their actions.”
The
settlement with Amritsar was reached after
Judge Ricardo M. Urbina ruled that under
District of Columbia law, taxicab companies such as Amritsar
could be held liable for the discriminatory acts of drivers flying
the company colors, even if those drivers are not technically employees
of the company. “Judge Urbina’s ruling
is a big victory for DC residents” said Jonathan M. Grossman one
of Mr. Greene’s attorneys at Hogan & Hartson, “because it affirms
that taxicab companies cannot avoid being held responsible for the
discriminatory acts of their drivers by hiding behind the legal
technicalities of their corporate structure.”
The
settlement agreement includes the following terms:
1)
The parties agreed to a confidential financial settlement.
2)
Amritsar agreed to pay for advertisements in local newspapers,
which reiterate that its drivers “agree to carry all passengers
and prospective passengers to any destination in DC” and urges those
who witness drivers violating this agreement to report such drivers
to the company. One such ad appeared in today’s Washington Post
and others will appear in tomorrow’s City Paper and Afro-American
Newspaper.
3)
Amritsar agreed to display for a period of five years signs
in its taxicabs reinforcing the anti-discriminatory message that
passengers shall be carried “to any destination in DC regardless
of race, ethnicity, or national origin.” The signs also provide
a phone number so that passengers may report any discrimination
that occurs.
4)
Amritsar agreed to institute a number of new policies that
seek to prevent discrimination by its drivers, including both referring
complaints to the DC Taxicab Commission and independently recording
and investigating complaints, as well as terminating its relationship
with any driver who Amritsar determines has discriminated.
The
announcement of the settlement in Mr. Greene’s case follows closely
on the heels of the release of a report by the Equal Rights Center
last week entitled “Service Denied: Responding to Taxicab Discrimination
in the District of Columbia.” This report details the problem of
taxicab discrimination in the District of Columbia and proposes
seven steps that the District government should take to tackle the
problem. The report is available at www.washlaw.org/taxi/.
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