U.S. judge says Toyota must face unintended-acceleration claims

Toyota

Toyota has been long fighting federal courts to throw out claims by vehicle owners claiming economic loss on models affected by its unintended acceleration recall issues. However, federal judges overseeing lawsuits against Toyota over the issue, made final an order rejected the automaker’s bid to toss out the claims.

Toyota owners allege that the Japanese automaker drove down the value of their cars by failing to disclose or fix the defects related to unintended acceleration.

U.S. District Judge james V. Selna in California declined to revisit last month’s tentative order, which allows the lawsuits to move ahead in which vehicle owners had pleaded loss or injury.

“Taking these allegations as true, as the court must at the pleading stage, they establish an economic loss,” Selna said in his ruling. “A vehicle with a defect is worth less than one without a defect.”

Toyota has recalled million of U.S. vehicles since 2009 following claims of defects and incidents involving unintended acceleration.

– By: Omar Rana

Source: Automotive News