LOS ANGELES (AP) — As Toyota
Motor Corp. chips away at settling lawsuits claiming its vehicles
suddenly accelerate, the question remains whether attorneys who sued
could prove to a jury there was a design flaw.
The company
maintains stuck accelerator pedals, faulty floor mats and driver error
are the reasons for vehicles unexpectedly surging, while plaintiffs'
attorneys contend Toyota's electronic throttle control system is to blame.
Recent settlements totaling more than $1 billion by Toyota
to resolve numerous lawsuits involving economic loss and a few
involving wrongful death claims may signal that the automaker doesn't
want to risk coming out on the losing end of a potentially costly court
decision.
"A bad loss in a jury trial would inflict lasting damage to Toyota
in loss of public confidence," said Los Angeles-based attorney
Christine Spagnoli, who has won several multimillion-dollar verdicts
against automakers over safety defects. "I believe Toyota will continue to look for better opportunities to get a win."
The
company said Thursday it settled a lawsuit with the family of two
people killed in a Utah crash that was set to go to trial next month and
serve as a test case for hundreds of others that are pending.
Terms of the agreement weren't released, but it comes just weeks after Toyota
agreed to pay more than $1 billion to settle lawsuits where vehicle
owners said the value of their cars and SUVs plummeted after the company
recalled millions of vehicles because of sudden-acceleration issues.
In
the Utah case, Paul Van Alfen and his son's fiancee, Charlene Jones
Lloyd, were killed when their Camry slammed into a wall near Wendover,
Utah. in 2010. The Utah Highway Patrol concluded based on statements
from witnesses and the crash survivors that the gas pedal was stuck.
It
was the first so-called "bellwether" case, before a federal judge in
Orange County, Calif., chosen to help predict the potential outcome of
other lawsuits making similar allegations.
Wayne Mason, a product
liability attorney in Dallas, doesn't believe Thursday's settlement
portends poorly for either side going forward.
"This is like
taking an aspirin when you have a migraine," Mason said. "Each of these
cases has to be weighed on their own merit. I will be surprised if some
don't get tried."
Toyota continues to be
dogged by sudden-acceleration issues that arose four years ago. Last
month the U.S. government hit the company with a record $17.4 million
fine for failing again to quickly report problems to federal regulators
and for delaying a safety recall. More than 150,000 2010 Lexus Rx 350s
and RX 450h models were recalled because the driver's-side floor mats
can trap the gas pedal and cause the vehicles to speed up without
warning.
Toyota has recalled more than 14
million vehicles globally to fix sticky gas pedals and floor mats. The
company also paid a total of $48.8 million in fines for three violations
in 2010.
While the recalls have soiled the company's sterling reputation for reliability, Toyota has regained its position as the world's largest automaker and saw sales increase 27 percent last year.
The
automaker also has received some vindication. Both the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration and NASA were unable to find any defects
in Toyota's source code that could cause acceleration problems.
In 2011, a federal judge found that Toyota wasn't liable for a 2005 crash involving a Scion that the driver blamed on the electronic throttle or a floor mat.
A
second bellwether trial is slated for later this year, but it's unclear
if a resolution will be made before then. Plaintiffs' attorneys have
reviewed thousands of internal Toyota documents, reviewed data and deposed employees, but most of that material has been kept under seal in court records.
In a statement announcing the Van Alfen settlement, Toyota
said there will be a number of other chances to defend itself in a
court of law, although the company may "decide from time to time" to
settle select cases.
"It would seem that Toyota
did not want a public airing of the evidence that has been gathered in
the lawsuits, so that it can continue to say that there is not a
problem," Spagnoli said. "If Toyota felt it could have successfully defended its products in these cases, it would have welcomed a public trial."
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