A yellow-cab driver accused of hurling a racial epithet at another driver is suing the city for suspending his hack license.
Mirza Baig was hit with a summons from the Taxi and Limousine Commission in October after a driver identified in court papers as “Mr. Choi” said Baig yelled at him, “F— you!” and “Go back to China!” on Sixth Avenue in Midtown, records show.
The hack’s license was suspended for five days — but Baig says in his Manhattan court suit that his hardship turned out to be longer because only business days are counted.
The TLC also didn’t tell him its decision through a letter as required, he said.
“I stayed home, I didn’t work,” he said. “If you want to suspend the license, you should give notice to the driver.”
“Mr. Choi” had filed a 311 complaint over the alleged incident but didn’t show up to Baig’s Oct. 29 hearing, and the judge wound up overturning four of the five TLC charges that the cabbie faced.
They included reckless driving and making threats.
A Taxi and Limousine Tribunal appeal unit then sent back the four charges to an OATH administrative court for a new trial.
Baig says he never yelled the racial epithet and that he had to stop suddenly in front of Choi because a pedestrian was crossing.
“Whatever he said, the TLC listened,” he said. “Where is the proof?”
Baig’s next court hearing has been adjourned until April 27.
The head of the taxi drivers’ union said cab drivers often have their rights violated in administrative courts, which hold over 100,000 trials a year.
“This is the first of several administrative appeals we plan to bring to defend the rights of drivers to have real due process in OATH courts and not be treated like second-class citizens,” said Bhairavi Desai of the New York Taxiworkers Alliance, who said drivers shouldn’t be suspended without a chance to appeal.
“Unless you’re a Fortune 500 company, you need to at least some time to find a lawyer and file your papers. We need real due process in these courts.”