Toronto taxi owners and operators have launched a $1.7-billion class action lawsuit alleging the city has failed to properly regulate the private transportation industry and caused the value of taxi plates to plummet.Three plaintiffs who are owners and operators of taxi services — Lawrence Eisenberg of Lucky 7 Taxi, Behrouz Khamza of Taxi Action and Sukhvir Thethi of Ambassador Taxi — are named as plaintiffs in a statement of claim filed to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on Aug. 21.They accuse the city of being negligent in its enforcement of bylaws against Uber and other private transportation companies.The city solicitor’s office filed a statement of defence in September, denying all the allegations and calling for the outright dismissal of the lawsuit. Both sides are currently waiting for the judge’s certification of the case. Lawyers for the plaintiffs are seeking other licence-holders to join the suit. “This whole thing has become like a joke,” said Eisenberg about the state of a taxi industry he has been part of for 55 years. He says about five years ago a taxi plate was worth nearly $400,000 but with the arrival of ride-share companies Uber and Lyft, that has decreased to about $30,000.The lawsuit’s $1.7-billion figure represents the total loss in value for roughly 5,500 licensed taxi plates in the city, approximately $310,000 each since the arrival of the ride-share services, according to the statement of claim.“My retirement just went down the tubes over the last couple of years,” Eisenberg said, blaming the city for failing to regulate the new companies “until after the fact.”In the 10-page statement of claim, the plaintiffs say the city has regulated the taxi industry since 1957 and has always acknowledged the value of a taxi plate — even congratulating a new plate owner on obtaining a “pension” for retirement.The city has allowed the transfer, sale or lease of ...
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