Judge Keeps Bulk of Toyota Consumer Suit Intact

A federal judge tentatively ruled last Friday that he would leave intact the bulk of a consumer class-action case against Toyota seeking damages for economic losses stemming from complaints about cars that raced out of control.

In a key setback for the automaker, the judge held that Toyota car owners stand to recover any compensation awarded under the lawsuit for lost resale value regardless of whether they personally experienced sudden unintended acceleration.

That ruling, if finalized in a written order expected next week from U.S. District Judge James Selna in Santa Ana, California, would leave the size of the prospective consumer class at roughly 40 million individuals, plaintiffs’ lawyers said.

Class status of the lawsuit has yet to be certified.

Toyota Motor Corp. has said that the number of actual unintended acceleration complaints it was aware of runs in the thousands.

Selna also tentatively ruled that plaintiffs need not identify a specific defect in vehicles’ electronic throttles to claim that some flaw in those systems triggered sudden acceleration problems, as alleged in the suit.

The Japanese carmaker insists its electronic throttles are glitch-free. Toyota has instead acknowledged just two defects as the root cause for its vehicles speeding out of control — ill-fitting floor mats and sticking gas pedals.

Both problems were addressed earlier this year in safety recalls encompassing 5.4 million U.S. vehicles.

The tentative ruling emerged from a hearing on Toyota’s motions to dismiss the lion’s share of the economic loss claims.

In one victory for Toyota, Selna said he was inclined to bar plaintiffs from seeking full vehicle refunds for car owners based on a breach of warranty and other alleged misdeeds.

The thrust of the lawsuit is the contention that Toyota ignored evidence of speed-control problems in its vehicles for most of the past decade and failed to install a brake override system it knew could have prevented accidents.

The suit maintains that a sharp rise in the number of unintended acceleration complaints following the introduction of the electronic throttle controls “put Toyota on notice” that a defect existed in the system.

The claims for economic losses are based on the premise that Toyota customers overpaid for their vehicles, made lease payments that were too high or sold their vehicles at a loss once the problems with unintended acceleration came to light.

Toyota has long boasted one of the industry’s highest resale values for its vehicles, as well as a superb record of reliability and safety, all major factors in the company’s success in the U.S. automobile market.

(Editing by Andre Grenon)