The meal delivery company DoorDash owes a general duty of protection to other drivers against the risks of a business model that can encourage distracted or dangerous driving, the Indiana Court of Appeals has decided.
The court said in an opinion filed Friday that it had reversed a lower court decision in a case in which a DoorDash driver ran a stop sign, crashed into a pickup truck and left that driver pinned under the truck while he completed his order on foot.
The pickup truck driver, Brian Oller, survived the 2020 northern Indiana accident and then sued DoorDash and driver Trey Culvey. Oller argued that DoorDash knew its business model and mobile application that drivers use encouraged them to drive in a careless or reckless manner.
DoorDash had filed a motion for partial judgement on the pleadings in Porter Superior Court. It argued that it was entitled to a judgment in its favor on a count of independent negligence “because it does not owe a duty to motorists such as Oller,” according to court papers.
The trial court granted that motion. But the appeals court noted in a decision written by Judge Paul Felix that “the buck does not stop with Culvey” on the facts alleged in Oller’s complaint.
The appeals court noted that the company’s business provides a financial incentive for drivers, known as Dashers, to deliver as many orders as possible and use its app while doing so, and that encourages distracted or dangerous driving.
Felix wrote in the court’s opinion that the company owed Oller “a general duty of protection from the risks and dangers of its business model and app.”
The court noted that recognizing this duty won’t require DoorDash to stop its business. But it will require the company “to either mitigate the risks associated with the distracted and dangerous driving it currently financially incentivizes or subject itself to potential liability,” Felix wrote.
A DoorDash representative did not immediately return a request for comment Monday from The Indiana Lawyer.
The case is Brian Oller v. DoorDash Inc. and Trey Culvey, 26A-CT-425.
This article was first published by The Indiana Lawyer.
