Judge Issues Restraining Order to Preserve Toyota Rollover Evidence

A federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order against Toyota Motor Corporation, ordering the company not to destroy any evidence on the crashworthiness of its vehicles.

U.S. District Judge John T. Ward issued the temporary restraining order on Wednesday as part of a fraud case seeking to re-open several Toyota rollover accident lawsuits, which plaintiffs say were impacted by Toyota failing to comply with court orders to produce evidence on crashworthiness tests.

The restraining order comes in the wake of accusations by a former Toyota attorney who says company officials ordered that evidence be withheld and for engineers to lie on the witness stand so that the company could avoid paying damages in lawsuits over Toyota SUV and pickup truck rollovers.

Last month, Dimitrios Biller, a former Toyota attorney in charge of legal counsel for Toyota’s National Rollover Program, filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging that he was blackballed and harassed after he discovered that company officials were destroying evidence of crashworthiness tests that revealed several Toyota vehicles may have a propensity to rollover. Biller, who was a National Managing Counsel in Toyota from 2003 to 2007, claims to have suffered a nervous breakdown due to the pressure resulting from the incidents and says Toyota drove him out and damaged his reputation.

Toyota maintains that it complied with all court orders to produce evidence in good faith, and claims that Biller violated attorney-client privileges in his legal claims.

As a result of Biller’s allegations, a number of plaintiffs involved in prior Toyota product liability lawsuits for rollover accidents have filed motions to have their claims re-opened, with some of the cases were specifically mentioned in Biller’s allegations.

Ward’s restraining order runs until October 7 and orders Toyota not to destroy any evidence, documents, e-mail or testing data related to product liability cases, including those which would be subject to destruction under standard company document retention policies. The order was directed at the company’s legal team, and must be distributed throughout the company and to all outside experts and contractors working with the company.

Ward has scheduled an October 7 hearing to determine whether the order will be extended beyond that date.

The order came a day after Toyota issued its largest U.S. automotive recall, and the sixth largest automotive recall in U.S. history. The company announced that 3.8 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles will be recalled due to floor mats that can cause the accelerator to be stuck in the open position, potentially leading to accidents, injuries and deaths.

The Toyota floor mat recall came after an August car accident in California that killed an off-duty state trooper and three members of his family after the vehicle accelerated to 120 m.p.h, despite the driver slamming on the brakes.