(CNS) Posted Tuesday July 19, 2011 – 9:38am
A Santa Ana federal judge on Monday said he will let Toyota's attorneys appeal his ruling that allows consumers who have not experienced a sudden-acceleration problem with their vehicles to still participate in a consolidation of hundreds of lawsuits against the Torrance-based company.
U.S. District Judge James Selna earlier ruled those consumers would be part of a planned class-action lawsuit that alleges Toyota buyers lost money as a result of the problems with the company's runaway vehicles.
Toyota intends to appeal the ruling and Selna said he would allow them to do that, but his order will not become official until Tuesday, so Toyota officials declined comment until then.
Attorneys suing Toyota said they welcome the legal challenge.
"I think we're going to win in the Ninth Circuit and this will take away one of their appellate issues," said attorney Steven W. Berman.
However, Selna will not let the appellate court consider whether California law should be applied to all of the economic-loss lawsuits, including from out-of-state consumers.
The plan is to let the law in the state of the claim's origin be used in his Santa Ana courtroom, starting with "bellwether"lawsuits.
The first one that will go to trial in February of next year originated in Utah, and it will sharpen how the rest of the claims will be handled.
Attorneys for both sides skirmished in court today over the exchanging of information.
Toyota attorneys argued the plaintiffs need to be more specific about the claims they are making regarding problems with the electronic throttle-control systems in the company's vehicles that attorneys allege led to the sudden-acceleration problems.
Plaintiffs' attorneys countered that Toyota is dragging its feet on the handing over of documents they need to provide more detailed allegations.
Toyota has blamed the problems with runaway vehicles on poorly fitted floor mats and faulty accelerator pedals.
The plaintiffs have alleged Toyota did not install brake-override systems, as their competitors did, to guard against unintended acceleration.
Copyright © 2011 City News Service
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