One of the conveniences that we have these days is calling for a ride from one of the rideshare apps, such as Lyft. It’s a great way to get from one place to another but it’s not without its problems.
A Detroit rapper named Dajua Blanding, who goes by the stage name Dank Demoss had a bad experience and now she has filed a lawsuit against the company and John Doe, the driver.
Court documents say that the rap star alleges that she paid for a ride to her cousin’s house using the Lyft app so she could watch a football game.
About 10 or 15 minutes later, John Doe arrived but he refused to let her get in the car.
More specifically, the rideshare driver locked his doors as he drove up and then tried to drive away. The paper states: “Specifically, as Plaintiff walked towards the vehicle, Defendant John Doe locked the doors to his vehicle and attempted to drive away.”
Part of the interaction between John Doe and Blanding waw captured in a video. You can hear her saying: “I can fit in this car.”
The driver responded. “Believe me, you can’t.”
When Blanding tried to confront the driver he told her that she was ‘too big’ for his car, locked her out, and said he was canceling the trip. The lawsuit states that he told Blanding she was too big to fit in the back seat and that his ‘tires were not capable of supporting Plaintiff’s weight.’
She insisted that she could fit in the car but he claimed that he had this type of problem in the past and said that ‘overweight individuals must order Lyft XLs.’
He then drove off and left her stranded so she couldn’t make it to the party. Blanding said that she’s been in a car smaller than that and wants them to know that it hurt her feelings.
The lawsuit was filed because of the discriminatory treatment and creating a hostile environment.
According to Blanding’s attorney, John Marco, “Under the law, refusing someone transportation due to their weight is no different than refusing someone transportation based on their race or religion.
“Discrimination of any kind should never be tolerated in our society.”
Another attorney also added: “Refusing someone transportation based on their weight is not only illegal, but dangerous. Imagine the consequences if Ms. Blanding were unable to seek shelter after the driver left her stranded. This could have ended even worse than it did.”