Toyota's sudden-acceleration woes are far from over as the company will have to face three trials in federal court in Santa Ana, California. The first case is the one concerning the death of two people in Utah, which was dismissed 10 days ago due to a lack of jurisdiction. US District Judge James V. Selna reinstated the lawsuit today after the victims’ families re-filled their claims against Toyota. The trial is set for February 19, 2013. The second case, for claims of economic loss due to unintended acceleration, is scheduled for July 2013 and the third, a wrongful death incident, will take place in November 2013.
All three cases will test evidence and liability issues and are expected to set a precedent for both sides, since many more lawsuits against Toyota are sure to follow.
The Japanese automaker says that there is no ground for common treatment of economic loss class-action lawsuits. Toyota spokeswoman Celeste Migliore stated: “We are confident that no common class of litigants exists and that plaintiffs are not entitled to individual or class-wide relief.”
Migliore added that, “the plaintiffs still have not identified any supposed defect in Toyota’s electronic control system and they have advanced no reliable scientific theory or proof to support any such defect claim in any Toyota vehicle, much less in all of them. With no defect, there can be no class.”
Story References: Bloomberg News
