SANTA ANA, Calif. — A federal judge in California said Friday that he will not dismiss lawsuits against Toyota from car owners who claim sudden-acceleration defects caused the value of the vehicles to plummet.
U.S. District Judge James Selna said in a 63-page ruling that he believes suits filed by car owners who say the value of their vehicles fell after recalls by the Japanese automaker can move forward. Selna said he will issue a final ruling within a week.
A hearing over a similar motion to dismiss lawsuits that seek compensation for injury and death due to sudden acceleration will be held in front of Selna on Dec. 9.
Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed since the automaker starting recalling millions of vehicles because of acceleration problems in several models and brake defects with the Prius hybrid.
Toyota maintains the plaintiffs have been unable to prove that a design defect — namely its electronic throttle control system — is responsible for vehicles surging unexpectedly. It has blamed driver error, faulty floor mats and sticky accelerator pedals for the unintended acceleration.
Toyota attorneys sought to convince Selna that more than two dozen lawsuits should be thrown out because the plaintiffs haven’t suffered any economic loss or they haven’t spent money to fix their vehicles.
Lawyer Cari Dawson noted in several of the suits that Toyota owners continue to drive their vehicles even though they have made allegations against the company.
