› $150,000,000 verdict in personal injury case
The federal judge overseeing lawsuits filed in federal courts against Toyota for sudden unintended acceleration damages has dismissed the lawsuit previously selected as the first bellwether case, saying it belonged in a Utah State court.
The federal judge presiding over multi-district litigation (MDL) involving sudden-acceleration claims against Toyota said Monday he may reject the auto maker’s motion seeking to toss the first of hundreds of lawsuits.
ST. PAUL, MINN – Koua Fong Lee, who was imprisoned in 2007 after his Toyota Camry suddenly accelerated and crashed into traffic, killing three, gave an interview to the St. Paul Pioneer Press recently, looking back his wrongful conviction and subsequent release.
A man who was imprisoned and subsequently released after his 1996 Camry sped out of control and crashed into another vehicle, killing three people, is seeking additional damages against Toyota.
Lawyers representing hundreds of plaintiffs suing Toyota over sudden acceleration incidents are challenging a NASA report that concluded electronic defects aren’t responsible for causing Toyota and Lexus vehicles to accelerate unexpectedly. Toyota has argued the defects that triggered a global recall of millions of vehicles over sudden-acceleration issues are caused by mechanical problems and driver error, not electronic flaws.
A California Superior Court judge has approved the $10-million settlement between Toyota Motor Corp. and members of a family that was killed when their rented Lexus ES350 sped out of control near San Diego, California, and crashed. The decision leaves Bob Baker Lexus, the company that loaned Mark Saylor and his family the doomed car while theirs had been submitted for maintenance, to fend for itself against unresolved negligence and wrongful death claims the Saylor estate has made.
Santa Ana, California — U.S. District Judge James Selna, who is presiding over hundreds of Toyota sudden unintended acceleration cases coordinated in multidistrict litigation, has told plaintiffs’ lawyers to resolve an evidence dispute so that the first cases can go to trial in 2013. One of the main obstacles that needs to be cleared before the cases can proceed concerns the examination of the software source code that governs the electronic throttle system in the recalled Toyota vehicles.
A federal judge in Santa Ana, California dealt Toyota a major legal blow when he rejected the automaker’s petition to have all class-action lawsuits seeking damages related to sudden-unintended-acceleration (SUA) issues thrown out.
Koua Fong Lee, the Minnesota father who spent more than two and a half years in a Minnesota prison on vehicular homicide charges for a 2006 crash, is suing Toyota Motor Corp., alleging the company knew its cars could accelerate unintentionally but failed to recall them or warn drivers.
Court filings in class action litigation against Toyota regarding cases of sudden unintended acceleration allege the auto manufacturer repurchased vehicles from owners who reported the defect, and forced them to sign confidentiality agreements promising not to discuss the complaint, according to a story in the Detroit Free Press. Attorneys in the litigation also allege that Toyota ran tests on the repurchased cars, and its technicians were able to replicate the problem, which they have been adamant in the past that they could not do.
