Toyota Asks For Sudden Acceleration Lawsuits To Be Thrown Out

[Omaha Steve]

Source: ABC

By MARK SCHONE

Toyota has asked a federal judge in Southern California to toss out hundreds of lawsuits that allege sudden acceleration problems in its cars, saying they are not based on fact. The motion comes the same week, however, that the automaker conceded that there had been a bug in the software used to read crash data from the "black boxes" in its vehicles.

More than 300 "sudden acceleration" lawsuits against the company have been consolidated for pretrial rulings in the US District Court in Santa Ana, south of Los Angeles. The lawsuits allege personal injury, damages and death due to incidents in which Toyotas accelerated out of control, and say that the resale value of Toyotas has fallen because of alleged product defects.

In its filing, the automaker said that plaintiffs' claims were "based on unsubstantiated circumstantial evidence." A hearing on the motion to dismiss the suits is set for November.

Toyota has recalled millions of vehicles to address conditions that it says may have caused episodes of apparent sudden acceleration. It has fixed "sticky" gas pedals and ill-fitting floormats. The company has denied, however, that there are problems with its electronic throttle, as some critics have charged, and has instead blamed other instances of so-called "runaway Toyotas" on driver error.


Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/toyota-asks-sudden-acceleration-lawsuits-thrown/story?id=11647667

[TheDebbieDee]

1. Isn't it standard procedure for any defendant to ask for the lawsuit

to be dismissed in a CIVIL lawsuit?

DU attorneys, help me out here!

ETA: Because criminal lawsuits have different procedures than civil lawsuits.........

[jberryhill]

3. Yes

The typical defense of a civil suit involves preliminary motions under Rule 12 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, seeking dismissal on one or more of the following general grounds:

(b) How to Present Defenses.
Every defense to a claim for relief in any pleading must be asserted in the responsive pleading if one is required. But a party may assert the following defenses by motion:

(1) lack of subject-matter jurisdiction;

(2) lack of personal jurisdiction;

(3) improper venue;

(4) insufficient process;

(5) insufficient service of process;

(6) failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted; and

(7) failure to join a party under Rule 19.

A motion asserting any of these defenses must be made before pleading if a responsive pleading is allowed. If a pleading sets out a claim for relief that does not require a responsive pleading, an opposing party may assert at trial any defense to that claim. No defense or objection is waived by joining it with one or more other defenses or objections in a responsive pleading or in a motion.

[Whoa_Nelly]

2. Of course they do

o boohoo...so sad :sarcasm:

Am not feeling a bit sorry for Toyota when they knew about this problem for years and tried to get fixes in under bringing in car owners to have "other' recall false pretenses.

This is just as criminal as Ford and the issues with the Pinto gas tank.

[musette_sf]

4. Another "victory" for cost-benefit analysis

The Rupturing Pinto Gas Tank:

Ford determined that to remedy the rupturing fuel tank problem, the cost would be just **$11** per vehicle.

The National Highway Traffic Association set the value of a human life at $200K.

Ford decided that the greatest dollar benefit would be to NOT add the $11 per vehicle into the manufacturing cost.

It would be cheaper to settle claims, based on the estimate of the number of claims that would actually get filed, than to fix the problem. In the case of the Pinto, Ford estimated that perhaps 100 or so claims would be made.

Therefore the "cost-benefit" was decided, to pay the claims than to fix the problem.

:mad:

Knowing the Pinto story, there is no way in hell I would ever purchase a Toyota.

Oh, and did you happen to see the Toyota "Black Box" story today?

"Until this year, Toyota had only one black box reader in the U.S., and did not allow outsiders to use it. The company has since deployed 150 such readers, including devices given to NHTSA and Transport Canada. Toyota plans to release a commercially available version of the reader in the near future. Other automakers, including General Motors Co. and Chrysler, already make such readers available to the public."

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-0915-toyota-blackbox-20100915,0,93137.story