Uber’s Bid to Split Up Assault Cases Is ‘Word Salad,’ Judge Says

Uber Technologies Inc.‘s attempt to break up hundreds of aggregated sexual assault lawsuits from rideshare passengers got a cold reception before San Francisco federal appeals court panel at oral arguments Tuesday.

The rideshare app, which is facing nearly 1,500 assault suits in a consolidated multidistrict litigation, is arguing that its terms of service agreements with passengers prevents their cases from being litigated in a “consolidated” or “coordinated” manner.

But Uber’s arguments about how exactly the consolidation of those cases was a legal error appeared to confuse the three-judge panel US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

“That was ...