April 15 (Bloomberg) -- The judge overseeing lawsuits against Toyota Motor Corp. related to sudden acceleration ordered lawyers in the cases to an initial conference in his Santa Ana, California, courtroom on May 13.
Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, is facing at least 180 consumer and shareholder lawsuits seeking class-action status and at least 57 individual suits claiming personal injuries or deaths caused by sudden-acceleration incidents. The federal lawsuits were combined April 9 in a multidistrict litigation, or MDL, before U.S. District Judge James V. Selna.
The judge will oversee the lawsuits, deciding issues such as evidence-gathering and allowable legal arguments. The May 13 hearing is an initial organizing conference, Selna said in a court filing yesterday.
Selna’s scheduling was “a little quicker than normal,” W. Mark Lanier, a lawyer for plaintiffs, said in an e-mail. “This is a good sign that this judge will get out in front of this litigation.”
Brian Lyons, a spokesman for Toyota’s U.S. sales unit, said yesterday the company didn’t immediately have a comment.
The Toyota City, Japan-based company has recalled more than 8 million vehicles for fixes related to sudden, unintended acceleration. The automaker announced in September that it was recalling 3.8 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles because of a defect that may cause floor mats to jam accelerator pedals. The company later recalled vehicles over defects involving the pedals themselves.
Congress, NASA
The incidents, which have been linked to at least 51 deaths, spurred congressional hearings and an announcement by U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood that Toyota’s accelerator flaws and electronic vehicle controls will be examined by engineers from NASA. About half of the lawsuits claim the mats and pedals don’t explain all the sudden- acceleration incidents and may be linked instead to electronic throttle controls.
All the class actions and most of the individual lawsuits were filed after September, when Toyota began the first of several recalls.
Attorneys Designated
Selna designated four attorneys to serve as counsel for Toyota and plaintiffs, telling them submit a report to him by April 30 on the critical legal issues, any pending motions, discovery requests and a list of all known related cases and parties. The plaintiffs’ lawyers appointed “are not a precursor of future appointments, but simply a means to initiate the process,” he said.
The three plaintiffs’ lawyers appointed are Steve Berman at Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP in Seattle, Elizabeth Cabraser at Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP in San Francisco and Marc M. Seltzer at Susman Godfrey LLP in Los Angeles. Cari K. Dawson, at Alston & Bird LLP in Atlanta, is Toyota’s attorney, Selna said.
The cases are combined as In re Toyota Motor Corp. Unintended Acceleration Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation, 8:10-ml-02151, U.S. District Court, Central District of California (Santa Ana).
To contact the reporters on this story: Margaret Cronin Fisk in Southfield, Michigan, at mcfisk@bloomberg.net; Bill Callahan in San Diego at callahan@san.rr.com.
Last Updated: April 15, 2010 09:50 EDT
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