Toyota Tentatively Denied Arbitration in Acceleration Litigation

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A California federal Judge has tentatively ruled that Toyota Motor Corp. cannot force named Plaintiffs in the potential Toyota “unintended acceleration” class action lawsuit into arbitration.

U.S. District Judge James Selna said in a tentative ruling last week that Toyota waived its right to force arbitration for 15 of the 20 Plaintiffs and that, for the remainder, the automaker wasn’t involved in the arbitration agreements between the Plaintiffs and the Toyota dealers.

“By failing to assert a right to compel arbitration until now, Toyota has encouraged plaintiffs to pursue their current litigation strategy, including pursuing their claims on a class- wide basis in a federal forum,” Judge Selna said in his tentative order. “They would be prejudiced if their claims were required to be submitted to arbitration now.”

Toyota owners sued the automaker following a massive recall of millions of Toyota vehicles due to a dangerous defect that caused some vehicles to experience “sudden unexpected acceleration.”

Selna has been presiding over the cases since 2010 when he consolidated them into In Re: Toyota Motor Corp. Unintended Acceleration Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation. [See “Toyota Class Action Moves Forward.”]

Toyota owners claim in the consolidated lawsuit, which has not yet been granted class-action status, that their vehicles lost significant value as a result of the recall and federal investigations into the sudden acceleration problem. Therefor, they deserve economic damages.

Toyota argued that customers who bought or leased their vehicles signed an agreement waiving their right to participate in a class action lawsuit. Toyota will have a chance next month to try to change Selna’s mind.

Selna has scheduled three trials for next year that will allow lawyers for both sides to test evidence and liability theories before moving on to other trials to help him decide whether to approve a class-action status for the plaintiffs.