Toyota SUV Rollover Lawsuits May Be Reopened
Personal injury attorneys who handle crash-worthiness and other product liability injury and death claims have questioned the stability and roof strength of Toyota pickups and SUV's for years. Toyota has vigorously defended itself in litigation and has been relatively successful in doing so. American attorneys who represent the injured in vehicle cases have long voiced suspicions about foreign automakers withholding evidence.
Now, Toyota could face the reopening of over 300 lawsuits, involving SUV rollovers following accusations that the automaker withheld evidence in hundreds of injury and wrongful death cases. Dallas attorney Todd Tracy said he plans to file to reopen 15 cases next week under fraud and racketeering statutes. Attorneys nationwide are monitoring the situation to decide whether to reopen cases against Toyota.
A former in-house attorney for Toyota, Dimitrios P. Biller, former managing counsel for Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc., has come forward saying the automaker illegally withheld evidence in hundreds of rollover death and injury cases, in a "ruthless conspiracy" to keep evidence "of its vehicles' structural shortcomings from becoming known."
Biller says that when he came to Toyota after nearly 15 years in private practice, he was "surprised and alarmed" to discover that the company was not producing e-mails and other electronically stored information to plaintiffs as he said was required. Biller says he repeatedly complained to supervisors that the company was illegally withholding evidence.
As cases in point, Biller cites a pair of lawsuits in Colorado and Texas, where Toyota failed to fully disclose electronic data and emails in defiance of court orders to do so. According to Biller, when he learned of the company's failure to produce design and test data from an engineering subsidiary, he attempted to collect and preserve the information.
Despite these efforts, the engineering unit "was allowed to destroy relevant information and documents that should have been produced in, approximately, over 300 rollover accidents involving roof crush issues."
