› $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.
When Mark Saylor called 911 from behind the wheel of a Lexus ES350 in 2009, he frantically yelled that nothing he did would stop or even slow the vehicle from speeding out of control on the California freeway. Mr. Saylor and his family died during that phone call, but had Mr. Saylor known more about the vehicle’s keyless push-button ignition system, would the fiery crash have been averted?
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.
Toyota has recalled another 255,000 Lexus vehicles in the United States and Canada for fuel system defects, part of a larger global recall of Toyota and Lexus models that encompasses about 1.7 million vehicles. According to Toyota, “insufficient tightening of the fuel-pressure sensor connected to certain fuel-delivery pipes” could allow the sensor to come loose and create a gas leak.
The first lawsuits filed in federal courts against Toyota will be tried as belwether cases sometime during the first quarter of 2013, Judge James Selna of U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, California, announced yesterday. Judge Selna asked plaintiffs’ lawyers to be prepared to select the belwether cases, which will serve as test cases to determine how the rest of the litigation will proceed.
A California judge presiding over multidistrict legislation on Toyota sudden acceleration claims has issued a 108-page order that allows plaintiffs with economic-loss claims to proceed with their lawsuits against the auto manufacturer.
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.
LOS ANGELES–Prosecutors have dismissed charges of reckless driving and vehicular manslaughter against a Torrance, California, woman whose Lexus RX330 crashed on a Los Angeles highway, killing her passenger. Unmi Suk Chung, 62, blamed the accident on a mechanical malfunction, saying the vehicle suddenly sped out of control.
