Toyota Accused of Hiding Evidence

Former Lawyer at Automaker Charges Evidence in Rollover Cases Was Concealed, Destroyed

(CBS)  By CBS News Investigative Unit Contributor Myron Levin

A former attorney for Toyota has accused the automaker of illegally withholding evidence in hundreds of rollover death and injury cases, in a "ruthless conspiracy" to keep evidence "of its vehicles' structural shortcomings from becoming known."

The explosive allegations are contained in a federal racketeering suit filed in Los Angeles by Dimitrios P. Biller, former managing counsel for Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc., who claims his complaints about the company's legal misconduct cost him his job.

Toyota, which is second to General Motors in car and truck sales in the U.S., called Biller's charges "inaccurate and misleading," in a statement issued late Friday to CBS News. "Toyota takes its legal obligations seriously and works to uphold the highest professional and ethical standards," the company said.

Company lawyers have not filed an answer to Biller's lawsuit, but have brought a motion to seal the complaint, claiming it is "rife with privileged and confidential information" that Biller, as a former Toyota lawyer, has no right to divulge.

A hearing on the motion has been set for September 14.

Biller, who did not return phone calls, worked for Toyota Motor Sales, based in Torrance, Calif., from 2003 to 2007. He was involved in defending rollover lawsuits that blamed injuries and deaths on instability and weak roofs of the company's SUVs and pickups. Along with Toyota Motor Sales and Japanese parent Toyota Motor Corp., his suit names five senior executives and lawyers of Motor Sales. The case was filed July 24 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, but has not been publicized until now.

Biller's 75-page complaint says that when he came to Toyota after nearly 15 years in private practice, he was "surprised and alarmed" to discover that the company was not producing e-mails and other electronically stored information to plaintiffs as he said was required. According to the lawsuit, Biller repeatedly complained to supervisors that the company was illegally withholding evidence.

The lawsuit further states that the resulting conflicts ultimately caused Biller to suffer a mental breakdown and led to his forced resignation in September 2007. He left with a $3.7 million severance agreement, court records show.

Read the lawsuit Biller v. Toyota (pdf)

The complaint charges that in a pair of lawsuits in Colorado and Texas, Toyota failed to fully disclose electronic data (such as e-mails) in defiance of court orders to do so. It states that when Biller learned of the company's failure to produce design and test data from an engineering subsidiary, he attempted to collect and preserve the information.

Despite these efforts, the engineering unit "was allowed to destroy relevant information and documents that should have been produced in, approximately, over 300 rollover accidents involving roof crush issues," the lawsuit claims.

It further charges that Toyota regularly, and improperly, withheld records on design and testing of vehicle roofs. For example, it says that Toyota never produced a document showing that the company's internal standard for roof strength was tougher than the federal requirement. Toyota engineers and witnesses repeatedly testified that the internal standard did not exist, the lawsuit says, adding that there are vehicles on the road today that do not meet the standard.

Word of the case has electrified the plaintiffs' bar, where some lawyers involved in vehicle cases have long voiced suspicions about foreign automakers withholding evidence.

Stuart Ollanik of the Denver firm of Gilbert, Ollanik and Komyatte, which has settled dozens of Toyota rollover cases, said he was "blown away" by the allegations, and wondered aloud if his cases "were resolved based on honest information or not." Ollanik said he had no "independent information about whether the things alleged in Mr. Biller's lawsuit are true, but if they are they're extremely serious."

With grim memories of Toyota's May 2004 courtroom victory over his quadriplegic client in a Toyota 4Runner rollover case, San Jose lawyer James McManis said he, too, was riveted by the charges. In the 4Runner case, everything with Toyota "was a big fight - and I mean everything - but I never suspected they were behaving dishonestly or concealing or withholding evidence," McManis said. "So I'm very interested in knowing whether we got all the discovery we should have got."

Biller is no stranger to litigation, and even before the lawsuit his battles with Toyota were exceedingly bitter. After leaving Toyota in 2007, he set up a consulting firm to provide attorneys with continuing education on such subjects as trial preparation and discovery of electronic records. But Toyota claimed that information provided on the firm's Web site and in class sessions violated the confidentiality clause of his severance agreement. Toyota obtained a restraining order against Biller, court records show.

Biller's lawsuit also notes that he has a separate wrongful termination claim against the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office, where he briefly worked from May to August 2008, as an assistant district attorney. Biller said he was fired over what he described as a dispute over sheriff's deputies failing to show up for hearings or failing to bring evidence.

In its statement Friday, Toyota said it was "disappointed" that Biller has attempted "to avoid what we believe are his obligations as an attorney formerly employed by Toyota. In our view, Mr. Biller has repeatedly breached his ethical and professional obligations, both as an attorney and in his commitments to us, by violating attorney-client privilege."

In the lawsuit, however, lawyers for Biller described Toyota's effort to silence him as "illegal and against public policy in that it is intended to conceal information from plaintiffs and obstruct justice."

[sbflm]

Toyota has been doing this stuff for ever. All you need is the media to help by not writing stories or ommitting truths. When Toyotas head of North America was accussed of sexual harrassment the story was not even written............When the women of America wake up to find out this culture does not give a damm about women .....things will change. If the media covers this story correctly as if it were an American Car Company, as they should, this story will hurt Toyota alot.

[bentler]

I like this guy. It's good to see someone with the backbone to call BS and help keep large and powerful companies honest and ethical.

I suspect Ford did the same thing with its spark-plug like in-tank fuel pump, before they started their quality assurance program to re-establish their tarnished reputation. Decades ago I experienced a few Fords that had problems stalling in the heat, including a Pinto (remember the Explodabout?) and Bronco I owned that Ford Service was sheepish to diagnose properly. Eliminating all possibities, a master mechanic friend and I pulled the stock gas tank on the Bronco, busted open the stock fuel pump and noticed the little black burn marks where electricity had clearly been arcing from the electric pump motor! Bad design in its stock fuel pump! And the replacement pump fixed the problem. That said, I'm sure it's fixed now and Ford's reputation is indeed good.

No doubt Ford knew it but avoided responsibility.

[erasmus111]

by toldyouso29 August 31, 2009 7:57 AM EDT
All grossly illiterate people should be put to death.



What about people that spew never-ending CRAP?

[reality42]

USSA love to pile on storys like this to take out there competetors ans steal market share.
What comes around goes around and we all know the world is turning away from America because of the finacial metel down from Greed and coruption in the USSA

[toldyouso29]

All grossly illiterate people should be put to death.

[Showman540]

Toyota has gotten in trouble for withholding evidence before...

They were sanctioned by a judge for it... http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1207305783569

[SAMTORRES66]

Why buy Toyota? GM & Ford are making nice looking quality vehicles...

[jackp32]

A disgruntled former employee bashes his former employer and comes up with a detrimental story to hurt the business. Now that is a novel idea to put into action. Where others have failed I will succeed.

[RCC_Soldaten]

Toyota never made a mistake----that they know of.

[longtree-2009]

nothing surprises anymore. maybe it's true, maybe it's not, but the general population will never know for sure. all toyota has to do is discredit the attorney making the allegations and toyota wins.

[rhs648]

This sounds like a case of sour grapes by a former employee. Further, this guy sounds unstable. He was even fired as an assistant district attorney. This should be an interesting case.

[toldyouso29]

Unstable or maybe just too honest to play ball as a lawyer in what is acknowledged as a dishonest, dirty and unethical profession.

[sailawayt2fiji]

Now, this is how to roll over and walk away:
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/393322/volvo_xc90_rollover/

[Hulk-Smash]

Hulk did notice SUV roll lot more than tank when thrown. But aircraft carrier hardly roll at all. maybe puny humans should drive those.

[ibsteve2u]

What's the name of your aircraft carrier dealers? There ain't one around here - must be some issue with no ocean.

[ajapierce]

I would like to add here that all the other car manufactures hide information.

God forbid if they release this information about the problems, then no one would want to buy their cars. Well i will tell you this, they need to release more of this information, and then tell people how they are resoloving the problems.

This is the sole reason why i will never own a SUV, a SUW (Sport Utility Wagon) yes i would own one of those, because federal states that those have to have ROLL OVER BARS in the ceiling, SUV do not

[jsd330]

And I thought the Japanese made nothing but quality, or so they conned the american public into thinking that. They hid all their recalls from the media or the media didn't bother reporting them. When U.S. car makers had a recall it was headline news.

[tiktin]

Look, folks, get it through your heads once and for all: the purpose of the roof on a car is to keep the rain off your head. It is not to support the weight of the car. You cannot support the weight of a car with a sheet metal roof, even though the idiots at NHTSA have been trying to do this for years. If you are a paranoid lunatic or plan to drive your SUV in a reckless manner, get a roll bar, (something the "experts" at NHTSA have, apparently, never heard of). Most people couldn't roll their car over if they tried. The overwhelming majority of roll-overs happen to top-heavy vehicles like vans and SUVs. Even vans and SUVs dont just roll-over by themselves. If you are planning to roll over your van or SUV, don't wear a seatbelt. The overwhelming majority of people who are killed in roll-overs got their heads bashed in because their seatbelts locked them in place when the roof collapsed. No, you wont be able to get out of the way. Your seatbelt is designed to lock up when the vehicle rolls over - another "safety" measure mandated by our brilliant government. Roll-overs are generally not fatal if the vehicle occupants are not wearing seatbelts. As far as roll-over "ejections" are concerned, ask the people making those claims to PROVE IT. Police reports? What a joke. The police are under orders to promote seatbelts. The whole "automobile safety" business is a racket.

[solomonray]

My brother and his wife, while driving a VW Fox on I-78 (back in the '90s) were hit by a truck and the car flipped. The seatbelts they wore saved their lives.

[sailawayt2fiji]

Wrong!!! Keep the rain out?? You are kidding, right?
An SUV can be made to keep you safe in a roll over. Here is the proof:
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/393322/volvo_xc90_rollover/

[jwesel1]

by tiktin August 29, 2009 9:22 PM EDT
Look, folks, get it through your heads once and for all: the purpose of the roof on a car is to keep the rain off your head. It is not to support the weight of the car.
=======================================================================
Not true. Federal standards require that roof of a vehicle classified as a passenger car (this excludes SUVs, minivan etc) be able to hold at least 150% of the vehicle's weight. With small trucks the requirement drops to 100% and there is no requirement for large trucks that I know of. I know this because I once rolled over my Toyota Camry after it went off the highway and the roof caved in about 6 inches and was explained this by the autobody techician.

[birdwoman98]

Totally unture, years ago 60 minutes did a piece on how Volvo engineered the roof supports to survive rollover...This issue is no different than the Ford Pinto expolding gas tank problem, so bean counter figured it's cheaper to kill or maim the customer then to invest the materials to prevent the problem.

[johnthecableguy]

I hope nobody pays any attention to this idiot. In a modern vehicle (maybe not a Toyota), with seatbelts on, a roll-over accident will most likely result in minor injuries. The primary cause of death in a roll-over accident is being partially ejected from the vehicle then crushed as the vehicle continues to roll.

Several years ago a young man I knew, a Marine recently returned from Iraq, fell asleep while driving a very small car with three passengers. (The carmaker is based in South Korea, btw.) When the car left the roadway it rolled-over five times. All four occupants, all wearing seatbelts, walked away from the accident after the car was cut from around them. They were all back on duty on the next workday.

I generally don't like to parrot law enforcement officials, but in the case I will - Seat Belts Save Lives!

[OEM_engineer]

As an engineer at an American OEM, I can tell you we DO have roof crush strength requirements, which we must meet. And...we are required to retain all documentation regarding how we test our vehicles. We do NOT destroy it, regardless of the outcome. This is deplorable. It's time people see Toyota as they really are....

[jwilliam27]

the Japanese playing dirty...what a surprise.

[jsd330]

They've been doing yhat since Pearl Harbor.

[conbuenafe]

I agree with tincup356...nothing and I mean nothing out of corporate America, Japan or the entire world would surprise me either.

[rainwater5]

In 2004, I cancelled an order for a Toyota Camry because I saw, and made a copy, of an notice that Camry Solaras, Lexus E300s, and the 6 cyl Camrys were prone to speed up and crash. I called the transportation agency in Washington, DC and discovered that some Toyotas had throttle problems. So I armed myself and went to the dealer to cancel the order. Denial, denial, and after quite awhile, I was told I would get my down payment back. Nothing ever was published about the problem, nor how many people suffered damaged cars or personal injury. Squelched. No more Toyotas for me, and when my brother needed a new Toyota, he bought one of the 2000 models, used, because the throttle problem was only one the 2003 body style. And if Toyota failed to acknowledge, then they probably did not fix it, and all of the Camrys could possibly be at risk for just taking off , as when the cruise control is on.

[grumpyu4sure]

Perhaps the right way to look at the "severance" is that it was expected to be hush money. Bravo for him for coming forward even though he got the big paycheck on his way out the door. And given his history of blowing the whistle, it seems clear that no one will ever hire him again.

[n4cjx-2009]

It figures GM and Ford are making sound vehicles now and the *** Crap is deserved again. Never have owned any *** car