The story of Toyota in-house attorney Dimitrios Biller has been covered extensively by CorpCounsel. In addition to the final chapter below, read our feature “Their Worst Nightmare”; watch our video interview with Biller; and see our interactive timeline of his case.
Dimitrios Biller, the former in-house attorney for Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. who accused the automaker of discovery violations in products-liability cases, lost his appeal to overturn a $2.5 million arbitration award against him.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit affirmed the award on Feb. 3, ending a dispute that erupted before Toyota’s 2010 recalls of millions of vehicles for apparent sudden acceleration defects. As former national managing counsel at Toyota Motor Sales, Biller’s accusations caught the attention of plaintiffs’ attorneys and members of Congress investigating whether Toyota’s sudden acceleration problems extended beyond the recalls.
Biller, who has been running his own consulting firm since leaving Toyota in 2007, has returned to practicing law. He did not respond to a request for comment left at his new firm, Biller Fadlon Rozio LLP in Beverly Hills, Calif.
“Toyota is pleased the Court agrees that the Arbitrator’s orders and final award were both valid and appropriate,” Toyota spokeswoman Celeste Migliore wrote in an e-mailed statement.
After four years managing rollover litigation at Toyota, Biller signed a $3.7 million severance agreement that included a confidentiality clause. In 2008, Toyota sued Biller, claiming he had violated that clause by revealing confidential information on the Web site of his consulting firm, Litigation, Discovery & Trial Consulting, which provided seminars on legal topics including discovery.
In July 2009, Biller filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against Toyota, accusing his former employer of ordering him to withhold discoverable evidence from plaintiffs’ attorneys while he worked there. He also sued several of Toyota’s in-house lawyers, including former general counsel Christopher Reynolds.
Biller said he had documents from Toyota that proved his claims. Those documents became the subject of subpoenas, including one by U.S. Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., then chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. But the documents also were criticized, both by U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who replaced Towns as committee chairman, and plaintiff’s attorney Todd Tracy of The Tracy Firm in Dallas, who reviewed Biller’s evidence after reopening some of his own cases.
Both of the Biller-Toyota cases ended up before retired U.S. District Judge Gary L. Taylor, an arbitrator at JAMS, who concluded that Biller had breached the agreement. He awarded Toyota $2.5 million plus $100,000 in punitive damages and ordered Biller to return the documents. He dismissed Biller’s claims, which included violations of the U.S. Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and defamation, and granted a permanent injunction prohibiting Biller from disclosing Toyota’s confidential information.
On March 17, 2011, U.S. District Judge George King in Los Angeles affirmed the arbitrator’s award and permanent injunction. On appeal, the 9th Circuit found no error on King’s part and concluded that the arbitrator had not demonstrated a “manifest disregard of the law.”
“Biller contends that he disclosed the Confidential Information to reveal Toyota’s misconduct for the purpose of revealing continuing misconduct,” the panel wrote. “But some of Biller’s disclosures bore no relationship to Biller’s stated goal and instead appeared to stem from Biller’s desire to advance his career after leaving TMS [Toyota Motor Sales]. Specifically, TMS’s breach claims stem, at least in part, from Biller’s use of the Confidential Information on Biller’s fledgling LDTC [Litigation, Discovery & Trial Consulting] website and in Biller’s presentation of professional seminars, pursuits whose purpose was Biller’s own professional enhancement and personal gain from his consulting firm.”
The panel rejected Biller’s assertion that King should have granted his motion for contempt after Toyota deleted documents from Biller’s computer — in particular, a letter from Towns to Toyota Motor Sales and four attached e-mails. King had denied that motion on July 14, 2011, prompting Biller’s appeal.
Biller filed several other contempt motions involving similar claims against Toyota following King’s ruling. On Nov. 16, in the most recent order, King admonished Biller for repeatedly bringing up contempt motions after the case was over.
“His dissatisfaction with the result of the litigation is not a license to abuse the judicial process or to waste scarce judicial resources,” King wrote. “Plaintiff is cautioned that any future misconduct may result in the imposition of an appropriate sanction against him.”
Biller, meanwhile, has joined the firm Fadlon & Rozio. A call to the firm’s office indicated that the name had changed to Biller Fadlon Rozio.
On Jan. 27, 2012, Biller and the firm’s other name partners, Isack Fadlon and Zacky Rozio, filed a $22.6 million suit on behalf of a Los Angeles fashion designer. In the suit, filed in Los Angeles County, Calif., Superior Court, the designer alleged that defendant Robert Gore stole his idea for a clothing label that he previously formed with Gore’s daughter, clothier Piper Gore.
This article originally appeared in The National Law Journal.
