Valuable foot traffic declines at dealerships on rainy days. Now, rain or shine, clouds are looming over Toyota. They desperately try to apologize and advertise their way out of it. It seems on a daily basis there’s a new PR campaign to bail water out of sinking reputation and every day there’s another story filling the boat up again.
The stories are like lightening strikes and the Congressional hearing just concentrated them so that the seemingly impossible happens; all of the lightening strikes in the same place. And right in front of the eyes of the congressional panel and National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) chief Ray LaHood.
There are harrowing descriptions of sudden acceleration to the panel, Toyota says there is no evidence and denies the existence of the problem, and then the denied problem happens to a Prius owner on a highway in California for all to see and exactly the way witnesses described.
Now the lawsuits mount, an estimated $3 billion dollars worth, and there’s no stopping them. Independent research has begun to plague Toyota and there isn’t anything they can do but try to advertise and yell over it.
Toyota Alleged Cover-up
Dimitrios Biller was a loyal Toyota employee for a long time. As a corporate lawyer he diligently defended the company in product liability and negligence cases from 2003 to 2007. His loyalty, of course, was well founded in his $4 million severance package when he quit 3 years ago. But despite the large payout, he also carted away with him 6000 potentially damning documents that have now been subpoenaed and passed along to the Congressional committee investigating the recall.
Biller is also personally entangled in litigation with the auto giant. He says he quit because of what he alleges were “criminal acts” by Toyota — specifically, withholding information the company was legally required to turn over to plaintiffs’ lawyers during litigation.
“There is a regular pattern and practice of not producing memos, minutes, reports, and e-mails,” Biller said. “These documents can be used to establish liability against Toyota in product liability and negligence cases.”
That type of allegation could potentially yield criminal charges if what Biller says is true.
The chairman of a U.S. House committee investigating Toyota, Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-New York, has reviewed the documents. There are numerous references to so-called “Books of Knowledge,” which are highly confidential internal data on design, safety systems and testing records allegedly generated by Toyota engineers. The data covers everything from roll-overs and roof safety to sudden unintended acceleration.
Edolphus agrees with the damaging assessment of the documents saying Toyota has engaged in a “systematic disregard for the law and routine violation of court discovery orders in litigation.” He goes on to say, “The material, I must admit, is very, very disturbing.”
These Books of Knowledge were never revealed because Toyota was deliberately keeping them safely in Japan and out of the US court system by paying premium settlements before the Books were subpoenaed to be brought in front of a US court of law.
But the problem is that the materials did get called to be brought in front of a judge and Biller was specifically ordered not to provide them. He, of course, agreed so to protect his client.
Toyota insists on calling the materials “trade secrets,” said Biller’s lawyer Jeff Embry. “That doesn’t mean that you get to keep them a secret from the court system.”
Toyota spokeswoman Cindy Knight responded by releasing this statement: “Mr. Biller continues to make inaccurate and misleading allegations about Toyota’s conduct that we strongly dispute and will continue to fight against vigorously.”
Toyota Recall Lawsuits Come From Surprising Place
The personal lawsuits regarding the recall are now at 89 according to the Associated Press. Experts say that this could translate into $3 billion dollars worth of losses or more worth of just judgments and settlements, not to mention the hard costs.
These lawsuits are associated with the recall, but not with regards to the actual problems which were the motivation behind the recall. No, the majority of these lawsuits are related to resale value.
Toyota commercials, particularly run by local dealerships, touted thousands of time the resale value of Toyota being the highest in the industry. There is a popular notion that cars begin depreciating in value the moment you drive them off of the lot and that notion seems to be pretty accurate. That’s what makes cars a “Depreciating Asset” or an asset that loses value over time.
To off set this depreciation many Toyota drivers were attracted at the prospect of getting the maximum value they could for their return, which is understandable, since many of them paid for the total value of the car twice over in interest anyway.
Tom Baker, a University of Pennsylvania law professor, told the Associated Press, “A super-big injury case would be $20 million. But you could have millions of individual car owners who could (each) be owed $1,000. If I were Toyota, I’d be more worried about those cases.”
Yes, but Prius’ and other Toyota models are still accelerating out of control. One happened on Sunday to Prius owner James Sikes and now another happened just yesterday resulting in a knee injury accident.
Police said a 56 year-old woman was about halfway down the driveway of her employer’s house at about 7:45 a.m. when the Prius sped up on its own. The car hit plowed through a metal fence, jumped a curb and traveled across a busy two-lane road before hitting the wall. The crash dislodged large boulders and caused the air bags to deploy. The impact flung the huge boulders 10 to 15 feet.
Ironically, the driver was on her way to an appointment with the Toyota Dealership.
Toyota Addressing Wrong Problem
Toyota claimed recently in a commercial that they are working 24/7 and fixing 50,000 cars per day. The question is that are they fixing the right problem?
The NHTSA is investigating claims from more than 60 Toyota owners that their vehicles continue to surge forward unexpectedly despite having their accelerator pedals replaced at the dealership after receiving a recall letter.
Toyota denies that its electronic throttle is to blame and has been focused on dealing with the recalls. As private research mounts against this notion, their strategy could backfire in court.
“Toyota’s strategy (should be) to fix them, fix them immediately and at no cost, and do it as quickly and effectively as you can so after the dust settles, your car’s value won’t have depreciated much,” said Edward C. Martin, a law professor at Cumberland School of Law at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala.
“We do not believe that electronics are at the root of this issue,” Toyota spokesman Mike Michels said Monday.
That is the type of attitude that got them into so much trouble. They are still hiding behind their Book of Knowledge which at this point has been opened and displayed for all to see.
Toyota Liability, Insurance, and Settlements
With all of this bad press and Toyota denying their place in the mess rather than taking the research to heart and actually fixing the actual problem it seems that the people that suffer the most are the customers.
The NHTSA has estimated 56 deaths due to sudden acceleration in Toyotas over the past five years. Tat translates into hundreds of injuries and millions of dollars worth of damage. As people investigate into the demise and injury of loved ones who drove Toyotas, the lawsuits will mount. Not to mention inquiries into insurance payouts by the insurance companies. If Toyota is found to have covered up the information, you can only guess the amount they will have to pay insurance companies.
If you or a loved one have been affected by the Toyota Recall, it is important that you have experienced Defective Product Liability council on your side to protect your rights and show you your legal options. Call Phillips Webster today for a consultation.
Learn More About:
- Manufacturer Defects Lawsuits
- Defective Design and Product Liability
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