Baltimore jury grants $2M verdict to woman who jumped out of car window

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A Baltimore jury last week granted a $2 million verdict to a woman who jumped out of a taxi window in November 2021 because she feared the driver was kidnapping her.

The jury deliberated for less than 15 minutes and found the driver, Roosevelt Tucker, liable on Oct. 10 in a false imprisonment case.

The plaintiff — an East Baltimore woman whose lawyer, Brandon James, asked that her name not be published — sustained cuts and bruises from jumping out of the car, which was driving around 25-30 mph, according to the police report. James said her injuries were not minor, but her medical bills weren’t exorbitant; her teeth punctured her lip, but she did not break any bones.

The woman, a Marshall’s employee who used Sedan Service Inc. to coordinate a ride to work, says she became scared when the driver took an indirect route and didn’t go where she told him to. She was further alarmed when she found the doors were locked, so she jumped out near the intersection of Caroline and Lombard streets, less than a mile from work.

She won’t receive $2 million; the verdict is subject to a cap on noneconomic damages around $830,000, according to James, who works in the office of Barry Glazer, the prominent personal injury lawyer.

Glazer said he had never heard of a jury spending so little time deliberating.

“It almost takes that long to sit down,” Glazer said in a brief interview.

James said his client told the driver she would give him the money if he just stopped the car and let her out.

“That was an indication that he was trapping her in the vehicle over ten dollars,” James said. At trial, James said Tucker was “very combative with me.”

Tucker, who did not face criminal charges for the incident, did not respond to requests for comment. He did not have a lawyer.

Sedan Service Inc. was dismissed as a defendant and faces no liability.

George Davis, a Towson-based solo practitioner who represented the company, said drivers use their own vehicles and are not employees; they pay Sedan Service a rate to send calls to them, and the customers pay them. The cars usually have company signage; drivers are required to get a Transportation Network Operator license from the state.

“We don’t control him, we don’t train him, we don’t give him any orders,” Davis said. “We didn’t pay him any money — he paid us.”

James said he expects to file a motion to reconsider Sedan Service Inc.’s dismissal from the case. He said he intends to use the “apparent agency” theory, which seeks to hold companies accountable for the actions of their independent contractors.

Baltimore City Circuit Judge Pamela White presided over the trial.