Toyota Didn’t Cause Man’s Accident, Jury Rules
April 01, 2011, 8:38 PM EDTBy Margaret Cronin Fisk and Thom Weidlich
(Corrects inaccurate date of accident listed in court documents in 16th paragraph.)
April 1 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp. wasn’t responsible for causing a doctor’s 2005 Scion to suddenly accelerate and smash into a tree, a federal jury in Central Islip, New York, ruled today.
The accident was caused by the driver, Amir Sitafalwalla, rather than the brake or the floor mat, said a lawyer for Toyota, John Randolph Bibb Jr., in his closing statement today.
Sitafalwalla “made a mistake in the operation of his 2005 Scion TC,” Bibb told jurors. “He made a simple but unfortunate mistake.”
The jury deliberated for less than an hour.
“It was all about how the mat came into play and obviously it didn’t,” juror Penny Overbeck, 38, of Center Moriches, New York, said after the verdict.
She said her vote was also influenced by “all the testing Toyota did. They had it all on video. It pretty much explained it.”
Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, recalled millions of U.S. vehicles, starting in 2009, for defects related to sudden unintended acceleration. Sitafalwalla, a Long Island, New York, doctor who filed his lawsuit in 2008, had the first case related to the issue to go to trial since the recalls.
Sitafalwalla had argued the accident was caused by defects in either the electronic throttle system or the floor mats. On March 29, U.S. Magistrate Judge E. Thomas Boyle, presiding over the trial, ruled out evidence on the electronics.
Floor Mat
Due to its design, “it’s just not physically possible” for the Scion TC’s floor mat “to entrap the accelerator pedal,” said Bibb, of Lewis, King, Krieg & Waldrop PC in Nashville, Tennessee.
“We weighed all the evidence and came to the conclusion that there was not a defect with the automobile,” said Regina Desio of Plainview, New York, the jury forewoman. She declined to give her age.
Albert Zafonte Jr., a lawyer for Sitafalwalla, said he was “disappointed in the verdict. I thought there was sufficient evidence for the jury to find otherwise.”
Both he and co-counsel George Statfeld said they would have to consider whether to appeal.
Zafonte said in his closing statement that a defect in the design and distribution of the mat system caused the accident.
The design allowed the mat to shift onto the accelerator pedal, Zafonte said. Toyota also failed to install a brake- override system that would have prevented the accident and was available on the 2005 Prius, he said.
The jury found Toyota wasn’t liable for product liability concerning either the mat or the absence of a brake-override system.
More Lawsuits
Toyota is facing hundreds of lawsuits claiming lost vehicle value or personal injuries caused by incidents of sudden unintended acceleration. Sitafalwalla claimed the automaker knew its vehicles could unintentionally speed up, leaving drivers at risk for accidents and injuries. Sitafalwalla, an emergency room physician, was injured in the August 2005 accident in the driveway of his Port Washington, New York, home.
The case is Sitafalwalla v. Toyota, 08-03001, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York (Central Islip).
Most federal cases claiming economic loss or injuries related to sudden acceleration are combined as In re Toyota Motor Corp. Unintended Acceleration Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation, 8:10-ml-02151, U.S. District Court, Central District of California (Santa Ana).
--With assistance from Bill Callahan in San Diego and Alan Ohnsman in Los Angeles. Editors: Mary Romano, Charles Carter
To contact the reporters on this story: Margaret Cronin Fisk in Southfield, Michigan, at mcfisk@bloomberg.net; Thom Weidlich in Central Islip, New York, at tweidlich@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: David E. Rovella at drovella@bloomberg.net.
