Toyota Asks Federal Judge to Dismiss Lawsuits Over Acceleration

Toyota Motor Corporation filed a motion Tuesday asking a federal judge to throw out all of the consumer lawsuits over unintended acceleration saying they are based on anecdotes and fail to identify any specific defects in the vehicles.

The consumer lawsuits, which have been consolidated for pretrial proceedings in U.S. District Judge James Selna’s court in Santa Ana, Calif., claim Toyota vehicles declined in value because Toyota failed to make timely fixes or disclosures of defects related to unintended acceleration.

Toyota issued the following statement:

“Toyota recently filed a motion to dismiss plaintiffs’ master consolidated complaint.  In its motion, Toyota raises a number of legal arguments aimed at various aspects of the complaint.  Most significantly, Toyota argues that most of the proposed class representatives lack standing to maintain claims against Toyota because they do not allege that their vehicles have ever experienced any defect or malfunction.  To the contrary, like the millions of would-be class members who they propose to represent, they have continued to own and drive their Toyota and Lexus vehicles without incident from the day they purchased them.  Their argument that people who own Toyota vehicles may someday experience problems in the future is an example of the type of highly speculative litigation that should be dismissed.”

“Plaintiffs’ lawsuit is based on the claim that there is a defect in Toyota’s Electronic Throttle Control System that causes unintended acceleration.  However, even after months of intense publicity and multiple scientific investigations, the plaintiffs have neither cited nor identified any specific defect in Toyota’s Electronic Throttle Control System, and no credible scientific theory or proof has been advanced to support the allegations in their consolidated complaint.  We firmly believe that Toyota’s Electronic Throttle Control System is safe, well designed, thoroughly tested and robust.  To date, Toyota has never discovered or been provided with any valid scientific evidence that the Electronic Throttle Control System in its vehicles can cause unintended acceleration in a real world scenario.”

A hearing on the motion is scheduled for Nov. 19 in Santa Ana.

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