The Court of Appeals of Indiana ruled on Sept. 18 that DoorDash owed a general duty of care to a motorist who was badly injured when one of its delivery drivers allegedly ran a stop sign and struck his pickup truck. The decision reverses a Porter Superior Court ruling that had thrown out the motorist's independent negligence claim against the company and sends the case back for further proceedings.
The ruling does not find DoorDash liable for the crash. At this early stage, the court had to accept the allegations in the complaint as true, and it held only that the claim can legally move forward. Still, the opinion signals that the way a delivery app pays and directs its drivers may be treated as a road safety issue, not only a matter of one driver's choices.
