Toyota Accused of Withholding Data
Toyota Accused of Withholding Data
By NICK BUNKLEY
Copyright by The Associated Press
Published: February 26, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/27/business/27toyota.html?ref=global-home
DETROIT — The chairman of a House committee that questioned Toyota executives this week about the carmaker’s recall accused the company on Friday of withholding documents while fighting lawsuits filed by crash victims.
Representative Edolphus Towns, Democrat of New York, said that Toyota’s actions amounted to “a systematic disregard for the law and routine violation of court discovery orders,” based on files obtained by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform from a former Toyota lawyer. Mr. Towns asked the chief of Toyota’s United States operations, Yoshimi Inaba, who testified before the panel, to explain why the documents had not been released to plaintiffs’ lawyers.
“People injured in crashes involving Toyota vehicles may have been injured a second time when Toyota failed to produce relevant evidence in court,” Mr. Towns wrote in a letter to Mr. Inaba.
“Moreover, this also raises very serious questions as to whether Toyota has also withheld substantial, relevant information from N.H.T.S.A,” Mr. Towns wrote, referring to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The safety agency is investigating whether Toyota acted quickly enough in recalling about 8.5 million vehicles — six million in the United States — after discovering problems with the accelerator pedals.
The committee said documents that it subpoenaed from Dimitrios Biller, who was Toyota’s national general counsel in the United States from 2003 to 2007, indicated that Toyota kept electronic files known as the books of knowledge, which contained testing data and information on design problems. The documents noted that the records had never been made public and that the carmaker entered into multimillion-dollar settlements on several occasions to keep them secret, the committee said.
Mr. Towns cited a 2006 e-mail message in which Mr. Biller explained that he agreed to a $1.5 million settlement with a woman who was paralyzed in a rollover accident largely to avoid disclosing the database.
A Toyota spokeswoman, Cindy Knight, said the company would respond to Mr. Towns’s questions.
“We are confident that we have acted appropriately with respect to product liability litigation and our discovery practices,” Ms. Knight said in a statement. “It is not uncommon, however, for companies to object to certain demands for documents made in litigation. Consistent with that philosophy, we take appropriate steps to maintain the confidentiality of competitive business information and trade secrets.”
Toyota has previously called Mr. Biller’s claims “inaccurate and misleading,” noting that he was suing for wrongful termination and emotional distress.
Meanwhile, the federal safety agency said that it had bought and planned to conduct tests on the Lexus ES350 sedan that was formerly owned by a woman who testified at another House committee hearing this week. The woman, Rhonda Smith, described the car speeding out of control at 100 miles an hour in October 2006 as she frantically tried to bring it to a halt. She eventually succeeded, after six miles, but a Toyota dealership told Mrs. Smith that it could not find any problems.
Also on Friday, Toyota said it was expanding nationwide a program to ease the repair process for owners of recalled vehicles. Dealers can offer free services like a rental car or taxi fare reimbursement during the time in which a customer “is unable or unwilling to use his or her car,” Toyota said in a statement.
By NICK BUNKLEY
Copyright by The Associated Press
Published: February 26, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/27/business/27toyota.html?ref=global-home
DETROIT — The chairman of a House committee that questioned Toyota executives this week about the carmaker’s recall accused the company on Friday of withholding documents while fighting lawsuits filed by crash victims.
Representative Edolphus Towns, Democrat of New York, said that Toyota’s actions amounted to “a systematic disregard for the law and routine violation of court discovery orders,” based on files obtained by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform from a former Toyota lawyer. Mr. Towns asked the chief of Toyota’s United States operations, Yoshimi Inaba, who testified before the panel, to explain why the documents had not been released to plaintiffs’ lawyers.
“People injured in crashes involving Toyota vehicles may have been injured a second time when Toyota failed to produce relevant evidence in court,” Mr. Towns wrote in a letter to Mr. Inaba.
“Moreover, this also raises very serious questions as to whether Toyota has also withheld substantial, relevant information from N.H.T.S.A,” Mr. Towns wrote, referring to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The safety agency is investigating whether Toyota acted quickly enough in recalling about 8.5 million vehicles — six million in the United States — after discovering problems with the accelerator pedals.
The committee said documents that it subpoenaed from Dimitrios Biller, who was Toyota’s national general counsel in the United States from 2003 to 2007, indicated that Toyota kept electronic files known as the books of knowledge, which contained testing data and information on design problems. The documents noted that the records had never been made public and that the carmaker entered into multimillion-dollar settlements on several occasions to keep them secret, the committee said.
Mr. Towns cited a 2006 e-mail message in which Mr. Biller explained that he agreed to a $1.5 million settlement with a woman who was paralyzed in a rollover accident largely to avoid disclosing the database.
A Toyota spokeswoman, Cindy Knight, said the company would respond to Mr. Towns’s questions.
“We are confident that we have acted appropriately with respect to product liability litigation and our discovery practices,” Ms. Knight said in a statement. “It is not uncommon, however, for companies to object to certain demands for documents made in litigation. Consistent with that philosophy, we take appropriate steps to maintain the confidentiality of competitive business information and trade secrets.”
Toyota has previously called Mr. Biller’s claims “inaccurate and misleading,” noting that he was suing for wrongful termination and emotional distress.
Meanwhile, the federal safety agency said that it had bought and planned to conduct tests on the Lexus ES350 sedan that was formerly owned by a woman who testified at another House committee hearing this week. The woman, Rhonda Smith, described the car speeding out of control at 100 miles an hour in October 2006 as she frantically tried to bring it to a halt. She eventually succeeded, after six miles, but a Toyota dealership told Mrs. Smith that it could not find any problems.
Also on Friday, Toyota said it was expanding nationwide a program to ease the repair process for owners of recalled vehicles. Dealers can offer free services like a rental car or taxi fare reimbursement during the time in which a customer “is unable or unwilling to use his or her car,” Toyota said in a statement.
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