Los Angeles: Lawsuits against Toyota Motor Corp. related to sudden acceleration will be consolidated in a federal court in Santa Ana, California, a panel of judges said.
Toyota, the world's largest automaker, is facing at least 177 consumer and shareholder lawsuits seeking class-action status and at least 57 individual suits claiming personal injuries or deaths caused by sudden acceleration incidents. All the class actions and most of the individual suits were filed after September, when Toyota began the first of several recalls related to inadvertent acceleration.
Toyota and lawyers for consumers asked in court filings and a March 25 hearing that the federal suits be combined in a multidistrict litigation, or MDL, in which one judge overseeing the litigation would decide issues such as evidence-gathering and allowable legal arguments.
The lawsuits will be combined in federal court near Toyota's US sales headquarters in Torrance, California, to be handled by US District Judge James V. Selna. Selna will oversee class actions and personal injury cases filed in federal court, the judges said in a ruling posted on the panel's web site on Friday.
Centralisation "will eliminate duplicative discovery; prevent inconsistent pretrial rulings, including with respect to class certification; and conserve the resources of the parties, their counsel, and the judiciary," the panel said. The central district of California "is the most appropriate choice" because of its proximity to Toyota headquarters, the panel said.
The Toyota City, Japan-based company has recalled more than 8 million vehicles for fixes related to sudden, unintended acceleration. The automaker announced in September that it was recalling 3.8 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles because of a defect that may cause floor mats to jam accelerator pedals. The company later recalled vehicles over defects involving the pedals themselves.
The incidents, which have been linked to at least 51 deaths, spurred congressional hearings.
