Font Size: 
Judge Orders Toyota to Hold All Car-Crash Documents
Corporate Counsel
October 02, 2009
When Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. (TMS) announced a recall of driver's-side floor mats on Tuesday -- after reports that they'd caused accelerators to stick, leading to deadly crashes -- the company suggested a quick fix. Until the company works out a permanent solution, Toyota urged owners of the affected cars to simply remove the mats.
The company probably wishes it had a comparable answer to the problem of its former in-house lawyer Dimitrios Biller.
It was because of Biller that on Wednesday a federal judge in Texas issued a temporary restraining order instructing Toyota to put a litigation hold on virtually all documents and communications that may be relevant to car-crash plaintiffs.
Judge T. John Ward, who sits in federal court in Marshall, Texas, wrote that there is "an immediate threat of irreparable harm in that, under the allegations, a threat exists that evidence material to this case would be destroyed or altered."
The plaintiffs in the specific case to which he was responding, crash victims Raul and Diana Lopez and their minor child, first sued Toyota seven years ago. They'd settled their claims and had no reason to believe Toyota had engaged in misconduct, their complaint says -- until Biller filed his own lawsuit against his former company in July.
The Lopez complaint essentially summarizes Biller's allegations, and Biller's entire complaint is attached as an exhibit. The family's lawyer, Todd Tracy, had previously filed a similar suit on behalf of 16 additional plaintiffs.
Biller alleged that during his years as national managing counsel in charge of defending litigation brought in rollover accidents involving the popular 4Runner sports utility vehicle, his former employer conspired to obstruct justice by repeatedly refusing to turn over discovery materials to plaintiffs. Biller claimed Toyota's current general counsel, two in-house lawyers, and its former GC were all part of the conspiracy, and the Texas lawsuit also names them as defendants.
The judge scheduled a hearing for Sept. 7, and Biller should be the star (and possibly the only) witness. He is, in fact, already in Marshall. Thursday morning he hand-delivered four boxes of documents to Ward's court, according to plaintiffs' lawyer Tracy. The Dallas lawyer said in a telephone interview that Biller is the only witness he plans to call.
"The first thing we have to do," Tracy said, "is find out what's in each box." Asked what the documents will show, he said: "I have no idea. No one has seen them before."
The lawyer chuckled for a moment. "Let your imagination run wild," he said. "It's the stuff novels are made of."
