12:11 PM PT — Colin Emberson, VP of Commercial for Coach USA tells TMZ … “We have become aware of an incident that took place on Tuesday, November 14 wherein charter customers from another bus company were left stranded on their way to a rally in Washington, DC. Coach USA was not in any way involved in this incident. In fact, Coach USA successfully carried passengers on 74 charter buses from New Jersey and Maryland to the rally on Tuesday as planned.”
A bus company is being taken to court after allegedly failing to deliver on its contract to transport protesters trying to get to the March for Israel rally after its drivers refused to drive them … and the plaintiff is claiming it’s owed damages for religious discrimination.
A guy named Doron Orbach is suing Coach USA in a class action lawsuit, alleging violations of several federal anti-discrimination laws — including the Civil Rights Act — that he claims Coach is liable in connection with his attempt to get folks to the D.C. protest in support of Israel.
According to the docs, obtained by TMZ, Orbach — who’s Jewish and Israeli — says the Israeli American Council had booked buses through Coach to transport upwards of 900 individuals that day to go from various pickup points across the East Coast … and to pull up for the march in D.C.
But Orbach claims Coach never picked up these folks like they were scheduled to — and he alleges it was all due to a coordinated effort on the part of its drivers/employees refusing to do the job based on their “discriminatory animus” towards Jewish people.
Waiting for your permission to load the Instagram Media.
The lawsuit says that multiple Coach bus drivers staged a “sick out” that day as a way to avoid picking up these hundreds of people … a majority of whom, Orbach says, were Jewish or of Israeli origin.
As a result of this alleged discrimination … Orbach claims his civil and human rights were violated — as were those of everyone else who missed the rally as a result. Orbach says Coach knew or should have known about the possibility of its drivers backing out and failed to take measures to prevent it … and it suing for unspecified damages.
Originally Published — 10:17 AM PT