(Bloomberg) -- A federal judge today denied Toyota Motor Corp.'s bid to dismiss lawsuits claiming personal injuries or deaths allegedly caused by incidents of sudden acceleration, making final a tentative ruling.
Lawyers for injured customers and families of those killed in accidents provided enough support for their claims to allow the cases to go forward, U.S. District Judge James V. Selna in Santa Ana, Calif., said in a ruling posted on the court's website today. Selna earlier denied Toyota's motion to dismiss class-action, or group, suits claiming economic losses related to sudden acceleration.
The automaker is accused in the lawsuits of failing to disclose or warn of a defect in its vehicles that could cause sudden acceleration. Toyota said in court filings that the plaintiffs didn't offer specific allegations of an actual defect and that the company didn't conceal anything.
“Toyota demands a level of specificity that is not required at the pleadings stage,” Selna wrote in his 34-page ruling. “The defect is identified: plaintiffs' cars suddenly and unexpectedly accelerate and do not stop upon proper application of the brake pedal.”
Selna denied Toyota's motion to dismiss the plaintiffs' claim of fraudulent concealment. “The court finds that the plaintiffs have sufficiently pled fraud” under federal rule of law “to survive a motion to dismiss,” he said.
8 million vehicles
The automaker has recalled more than 8 million vehicles for repairs related to sudden unintended acceleration. In September 2009, the automaker announced a recall of 3.8 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles because of a defect that may cause floor mats to jam accelerator pedals. The company later recalled vehicles over defects involving the pedals themselves.
“We are in the process of reviewing Judge Selna's final ruling and will respond when we have completed the review,” Celeste Migliore, a Toyota spokeswoman, said in a statement.
Selna's rulings on motions to dismiss “come at a stage of the legal proceedings in which the judge has to accept that what the plaintiffs allege are true, even though they are unproven,” Migliore said Thursday. “We are confident that as the facts develop in this case they will show that there are no defects in these Toyota vehicles.”
Toyota faces about 400 lawsuits alleging lost vehicle value or injury or death from sudden acceleration.
