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Ex-Toyota Attorney Ordered Into Arbitration Over Destroyed Evidence Claims
The National Law Journal
November 19, 2009
A federal judge has ordered that a former in-house lawyer at Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. must arbitrate claims that the automobile manufacturer hid and destroyed evidence in cases involving victims of rollover accidents.
U.S. District Judge George H. King of the Central District of California also dismissed racketeering claims brought by the legal consulting firm of Dimitrios Biller, who was the national managing counsel in the legal services group in charge of Toyota's rollover crash litigation between 2003 until his resignation in 2007.
Biller and his consulting firm, Litigation Discovery & Trial Consulting Inc., which he started after leaving Toyota, filed suit on July 24 alleging claims of wrongful termination, emotional distress, defamation and violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) against Toyota Motor Sales USA, its parent corporation, Toyota Motor Corp., and several of its in-house lawyers.
"Like most trial lawyers, we would rather be before the court instead of arbitration, but we're gratified that the claims of Mr. Biller remain intact," said Biller's lawyer, Joseph Wohrle, a partner at Allen + Wohrle in Santa Monica, Calif.
Toyota's spokesman, Mike Michels, said the company was pleased with the decision.
Biller's suit, which Toyota failed to get sealed, had threatened to reopen personal injury cases against Toyota on behalf of victims of rollover accidents. In recent months, plaintiffs in previous personal injury cases have filed court documents in Texas and California against Toyota and its in-house counsel, citing Biller's allegations.
In court papers, Biller had argued that the 2007 severance agreement, which gave him $3.7 million, was invalid and unenforceable because he was mentally incompetent at the time it was signed and because it included an allegedly illegal confidentiality clause. King disagreed.
King also dismissed a separate RICO claim brought by Biller's consulting firm, which was not a party to the severance agreement. Biller claims that his consulting firm was forced to close after Toyota asserted that he was divulging protected attorney-client information.
Toyota, in court papers, had argued that Biller failed to establish the existence of an enterprise or that he was injured by the alleged conduct.
King, citing an "inartfully pled civil RICO claim," dismissed the consulting firm's allegations.
On Sept. 25, Los Angeles Co., Calif., Superior Court Judge John L. Segal referred Biller to the State Bar of California in a separate lawsuit Toyota filed last year against Biller. In that case, Toyota had been seeking an injunction to prevent Biller's consulting firm from divulging information protected under the confidentiality clause of his severance agreement.
