A former attorney for Toyota has accused the automaker of illegally withholding evidence in hundreds of rollover death and injury cases, claiming the company has operated a “ruthless conspiracy” to keep evidence of its vehicles’ structural shortcomings from becoming known,” according to CBS News.
The allegations are contained in a federal racketeering suit filed in Los Angeles by Dimitrios P. Biller, former managing counsel for Toyota Motor Sales, USA, 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 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 worked for Toyota Motor Sales 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. Biller’s complaint says 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.