A federal judge in Texas has issued a sweeping temporary restraining order to prevent the Toyota Motor Corporation, its subsidiaries, and members of its in-house legal team from destroying any documents about the crashworthiness of all vehicles manufactured by the company.
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The order comes in the wake of allegations that Toyota spent years conspiring to conceal evidence from the victims of rollover accidents, according to a lawsuit filed by Dimitrios Biller, the former national managing counsel in charge of Toyota’s national rollover programme. Biller worked as a lawyer for Toyota Motor Sales USA from 2003 to 2007.
Dallas attorney Todd Tracy obtained the restraining order in connection with the filing of a 17th fraud case that seeks to reopen lawsuits in which key evidence might have been withheld.
“Toyota should heed this judge’s warning from the board room to the assembly line that every single email, every document, every bit of research, and all information about vehicle safety is now put on hold. I filed the motion out of concern that Dimitrios Biller’s allegations describe that a Watergate style cover-up was underway at Toyota to undermine the American legal system.”
The litigation hold ordered by federal district judge John Ward must be distributed throughout the entire company, to outside counsel, and to outside experts and contractors, according to Tracy.
The judge ordered Toyota not to destroy any documents pertaining to product liability cases, research, testing or documents subject to destruction under document retention policies.
The judge will rule on issuing a permanent injunction in a hearing scheduled for 7 October.
The order is also directed at four top members of Toyota’s California based in-house legal team.
Tracy claimed Toyota is continuing to try to stop Biller from publicising information about Toyota’s lawsuits.
“Toyota characterises Biller’s disturbing revelations as company trade secrets that shouldn’t see the light of day. I’m now confident that this temporary restraining order puts us on the road to getting Toyota to tell the truth to its accident victims,” he said.
In a 10 September statement, Toyota said: “Recent lawsuits filed against Toyota by Dimitrios Biller, Todd Tracy and Richard McCune are based on inaccurate and misleading allegations made by Biller. As our court papers in the Biller case make clear, we strongly dispute his unfounded claims.
“After careful review of these allegations, we are confident that we have acted appropriately with respect to product liability litigation. Toyota has initiated proceedings against Biller, and we intend to defend against the Biller, Tracy and McCune claims vigorously.”
