According to Bloomberg, Toyota Motor Corp., its units, lawyers and any other employees were ordered by a U.S. judge to preserve all documents relating to any make model or year platform vehicle, crashworthiness data, and research projects related to product liability or crashworthiness of its vehicles. Toyota was accused of destroying lawsuit evidence.
District Judge T. John Ward wrote, “The court finds an immediate threat of irreparable harm in that, under the allegations, a threat exists that evidence material to this case would be destroyed or altered.” The judges order stems from a federal lawsuit filed in July in Los Angeles by Dimitrios Biller, a former in-house attorney for Toyota. Biller claims Toyota destroyed documents that should have been retained as possible evidence in personal injury claims. He further claims that he suffered a mental breakdown and is unable to work after he was forced to perform unethical and illegal tasks and finally resigned from Toyota, receiving a $3.7 million settlement when he left the company in 2007.
Todd Tracy, a Texas attorney is representing families of crash victims (some who died and others who were paralyzed) who’d resolved their product liability claims with the company. Tracy sought Ward’s permission to reopen his clients’ cases in light of Biller’s claims because some suits were dropped due to lack of evidence. Tracy sued Toyota after Biller made his claims and is seeking unspecified damages and sanctions against the company on their behalf.
Ward set a hearing for Oct. 7 to decide whether to extend his order.
