TOYOTA WHISTLEBLOWER SUPPORTS FRAUD CASE WITH INSIDER DOCUMENTS
Attorney Todd Tracy Urges Full Access for Toyota Accident Victims
DALLAS, October 1, 2009 – Toyota Motor Corporation’s (NYSE:TM) former in-house lawyer for rollover cases suddenly turned over hundreds of documents to a federal judge in Texas today in an apparent move to support his allegations that the automaker concealed and destroyed evidence in at least 300 accident cases.
Dimitrios Biller made a surprise visit to the federal courthouse in Marshall, Texas after arriving from California with four large banker boxes sealed with tape and stamped with airline shipping labels. Biller, the former National Managing Counsel in charge of Toyota’s National Rollover Program, and his attorney delivered the boxes to the office of federal District Judge T. John Ward.
The boxes and their contents were labeled as four exhibits in a fraud lawsuit filed by Dallas Attorney Todd Tracy. Todd Tracy had just obtained a sweeping restraining order against Toyota to prevent document destruction and is seeking to reopen 17 accident cases in the wake of Biller’s revelations.
“This is clearly information that Toyota does not want the public to see. Now it has found a safe haven from shredders. These boxes may contain the only surviving evidence of the cover-up and destruction of evidence alleged by Mr. Biller. Toyota’s accident victims need to see the information inside these boxes immediately to find out if the Japanese auto giant perverted the course of American justice.”
Biller worked as a lawyer for Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc., from 2003 to 2007. Biller’s surprise delivery to the East Texas courthouse appeared to thwart attempts by Toyota to put the documents under seal.
For More Information Contact Robert Riggs, Spokesman for the Tracy Firm Attorneys at Law pressinformation@earthlink.net Case Reference:
Lopez et al vs. Toyota Motor Corporation, Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc., Christopher Reynolds, Jane Howard Martin, Eric Taira, and Dian Ogilvie
U.S. District Court For The Eastern District Of Texas Marshall Division Civil Action No. 2:09-cv-292
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COURT ORDERS TOYOTA NOT TO DESTROY VEHICLE SAFETY EVIDENCE
Attorney Todd Tracy Obtains Restraining Order in New Fraud Case
DALLAS, September 30, 2009 – A federal judge in Texas issued a sweeping Temporary Restraining Order today to prevent the Toyota Motor Corporation (NYSE:TM), its subsidiaries, and members of its in-house legal team from destroying any documents about the crashworthiness of all vehicles manufactured by the company.
The order comes in the wake of allegations that Toyota spent years conspiring to conceal evidence from the victims of rollover accidents according to a lawsuit filed by Dimitrios Biller, the former National Managing Counsel in charge of Toyota’s National Rollover Program. Biller worked as a lawyer for Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc., from 2003 to 2007.
Dallas attorney Todd Tracy obtained the restraining order in connection with the filing of a 17th fraud case that seeks to reopen lawsuits in which key evidence might have been withheld. “Toyota should heed this judge’s warning from the board room to the assembly line that every single email, every document, every bit of research, and all information about vehicle safety is now put on hold. I filed the motion out of concern that Dimitrios Biller’s allegations describe that a Watergate style cover-up was underway at Toyota to undermine the American legal system.”
The litigation hold ordered by federal District Judge T. John Ward must be distributed throughout the entire company, to outside counsel, and to outside experts and contractors according to Tracy. The judge ordered Toyota not to destroy any documents pertaining to product liability cases, research, testing or documents subject to destruction under document retention policies. The judge will rule on issuing a permanent injunction in a hearing scheduled for October 7th.
The order is also directed at four top member’s of Toyota’s California based in-house legal team: Christopher Reynolds, VP and General Counsel of Toyota Motor Sales; Jane Howard Martin, Asst General Counsel in the Legal Services Group; Eric Taira, Asst General Counsel for TMS and Biller’s immediate supervisor; and Dian Ogilvie, Senior VP and General Counsel during Biller’s employment.
Tracy points out that Toyota continues to try to stop Biller from publicizing information about Toyota’s lawsuits. “Toyota characterizes Mr. Biller’s disturbing revelations as company trade secrets that shouldn’t see the light of day. I’m now confident that this Temporary Restraining Order puts us on the road to get Toyota to tell the truth to its accident victims.”
For More Information Contact Robert Riggs, Spokesman for the Tracy Firm Attorneys at Law pressinformation@earthlink.net Case Reference:
Lopez et al vs. Toyota Motor Corporation, Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc., Christopher Reynolds, Jane Howard Martin, Eric Taira, and Dian Ogilvie
U.S. District Court For The Eastern District Of Texas Marshall Division Civil Action No. 2:09-cv-292
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GET TOYOTA TO TELL THE TRUTH—TODD TRACY CALLS FOR SAFETY INVESTIGATION
Federal Lawsuit Charges Massive Coverup
of Auto Safety Data
DALLAS, September 10, 2009 – Since late 2002, University of Texas at Austin women’s
track coach Bev Kearney has been struggling to regain use of her legs following a horrific
rollover crash in a Lexus SUV. Kearney, the first black women’s head coach to win a
Division I team national title, suffered spinal cord injuries that left her temporarily
paralyzed. She has undergone numerous surgeries and years of rehabilitation to regain use
of her legs and still walks on crutches. Two others in the vehicle were killed.
Had the public known, through lawsuits and release of information to government
regulators about safety practices at Toyota Motor Corporation (NYSE:TM), tragic injuries
such as these might never have occurred.
“The American legal system and vehicle owners need to rise up to ‘get Toyota to tell the
truth’ about its hidden crash safety data,” said Dallas attorney Todd Tracy, recognized as
one of the world’s top legal experts on vehicle accidents and safety defects that cause
crashes. “Toyota was the top benefactor of the ‘Cash For Clunkers’ stimulus rebate
program. Their cover‐up of serious safety problems makes a ‘chump’ out of the American
taxpayer.”
Revelations by a former Toyota lawyer that the company hid or destroyed crash safety data
it should have disclosed in up to 300 civil lawsuits prompted Tracy to file suit seeking to
reopen 15 cases in which key evidence might have been withheld. Among them is Kearny’s
case.
“The days of Defendants destroying, concealing and hiding discovery must be abolished,”
the lawsuit against Toyota Motor Corporation (NYSE:TM), Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.,
and four in‐house Toyota lawyers states. “This type of conduct by Defendants is illegal,
immoral, and unprofessional and deprives litigants of equal access. Defendants’ cloak and
dagger games must be terminated.”
The suit brought by individuals killed or seriously injured in crashes involving Toyota
vehicles accuses the world’s largest automaker of fraud and racketeering in withholding
materials from the judicial system, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and
the American public.
It accuses Toyota of engaging in “a pattern of discovery abuse that is tailor made for a
Hollywood movie.” Toyota’s conduct “is more like a horror movie script to the victims of
Toyota’s products,” the complaint states.
Attorney Todd Tracy called on Congress to launch an investigation. “This pattern of lying to
the courts and federal auto safety regulators has taken a tragic toll on the principles of the
American legal system and on countless unsuspecting victims in vehicle accidents. It
reminds me of the federal testimony by Big Tobacco. I believe hundreds of auto accident
cases will be reopened across the country so that victims can be fairly compensated for
their injuries. Toyota needs to come clean to every owner of one of its vehicles. “
The suit seeks to revisit the previously settled cases in light of new information from
Dimitrios Biller, who worked as a lawyer for Toyota from 2003 to 2007. In a lawsuit Biller
filed against Toyota in July, the former top Toyota lawyer said the company spent years
concealing evidence from victims of rollover accidents.
Biller, who worked for Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. in Torrance, Calif., worked on the
company’s legal response in rollover cases. He was immediately “surprised and alarmed”
at how Toyota withheld critical electronic communications such as internal email and crash
test data in cases where injured people had sued Toyota following rollover accidents,
Biller’s lawsuit states. Victims in these cases, many involving trucks and SUVs, were
frequently killed or seriously injured by crushed roofs and contend in their lawsuits that
the deaths and injuries were a result of weak roofs in Toyota vehicles.
In his complaint, which Toyota tried unsuccessfully to seal from public view, Biller said that
in at least two cases, one in Colorado and one in Texas, Toyota defied court orders
requiring it to fully disclose important emails and other electronic data.
When Biller learned of a failure to produce design and test data from an engineering unit,
he attempted to collect and preserve the information, his lawsuit states. Despite his efforts,
the engineering subsidiary “was allowed to destroy relevant information and documents
that should have been produced in, approximately, over 300 rollover accidents involving
roof crush issues.” One document, for instance, spelled out Toyota’s internal requirement
that roofs be stronger than federal standards. Biller said engineers and witnesses for the
company repeatedly testified that Toyota did not have such a standard. Biller said “there
are vehicles on the highway today that do not satisfy that requirement.”
Other data describing Toyota’s testing standards was destroyed in late 2005 or early 2006
and was never furnished to victims’ lawyers, he said. “This data was relevant in numerous
rollover and roof crush cases spanning a period of over 20 years,” the lawsuit states.
Biller repeatedly complained to his supervisors that the company was illegally withholding
evidence. Not only did they not correct that problem, his complaint states, they instructed
him not to preserve electronic communications he had collected and ordered him not to
produce emails, at least once in blatant defiance of an order from a Texas judge. He said his
supervisor told him to uphold “the ‘Golden Rule,’ i.e., protect the client at all cost even if
that means committing illegal actions.”
The whistle‐blowing lawyer also says Toyota repeatedly concealed information from
federal safety officials, who enforce government standards on matters such as roof
strength. In August 2005, Toyota withheld an engineering report from the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration that concluded the company could comply with new,
more stringent government rules, Biller says. Instead, Toyota “hired another engineering
firm to give a second, different opinion, and that second report was provided to NHTSA.
The original report never was provided and was ‘buried.’”
The complaint brought in the Eastern District of Texas makes its own reference to the
Golden Rule. “Defendants have violated the one rule that every child in America is taught ‐‐
do unto others, as you would have them do unto you,” it states.
For More Information Contact Robert Riggs, Spokesman for the Tracy Firm Attorneys at
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