© 2018 The Texas Lawbook.
By Natalie Posgate
(March 6) – A Dallas judge has denied Toyota Motor Corp.’s request to seal a set of documents leaked years ago by a former in-house lawyer that are resurfacing in a defective product case brought by Frank Branson’s law firm.
Lawyers for the Japanese automaker had requested at a hearing last week to permanently seal the documents, despite their public availability on the Internet. Toyota asserted that the documents contain information protected by attorney-client privilege that Toyota had never waived since the former in-house lawyer, who “became disgruntled” after an employment dispute, stole the documents upon departing the company.
In a two-page ruling issued Monday, Dallas District Judge Dale Tillery ruled that Toyota waived any right it may have had to obtain a permanent sealing order of the documents.
“As a result of the current pervasive evidence of the written materials in the public record and domain, which are the subject of Toyota’s motion for permanent sealing order, any permanent sealing order entered by this court cannot have any practical legal effect,” Judge Tillery wrote.
Tillery also found in his ruling that the documents in question “concern matters that have a probable adverse effect upon public health or safety.”
In another two-page ruling, Judge Tillery also ordered on Monday for Toyota to make a corporate representative available by March 26 or another mutually agreeable date to testify about where and how the company maintains its safety databases so the plaintiffs can determine what kind of information they should seek in discovery.
The judge also ordered the plaintiffs and Toyota to jointly produce a plan for conducting searches of Toyota’s databases within 21 days.
Frank Branson, Eric Stahl and Chip Brooker represent the plaintiffs, Benjamin and Kristi Reavis. The Reavises sued Toyota in November 2016 alleging their defective Lexus caused their children to sustain lifelong injuries after a rear-end collision. Though the case is over a year old, the couple’s legal team argues that they have been unable to conduct adequate discovery because Toyota is refusing to turn over basic documents from their safety design databases that their clients are legally entitled to have access to.
In the hearing last week, the lawyers asked Judge Tillery to admit into evidence a series of internal Toyota documents that in-house lawyer-turned-whistleblower Dimitrios Biller leaked online. The plaintiffs say the documents reveal the existence of two safety and design databases called the MIK and “Books of Knowledge” – which Toyota has concealed in litigation – that the plaintiffs believe could help them with their case.
But the documents also reveal a culture of secrecy and fraud at Toyota, the plaintiffs say – one that executives are even willing to break the law for so they can protect the company from handing over documents during discovery that might hurt their defense in tort cases that are regularly filed against the automaker across the U.S.
Amongst the documents that the plaintiffs wanted admitted into evidence and Toyota wanted sealed were a wrongful termination lawsuit Biller filed against Toyota that includes privileged information and a 2010 letter that U.S. Congressman Edolphus Towns sent to Toyota’s CEO when Congress was investigating the company’s sticky gas pedal scandal.
To read more about last week’s hearing visit The Lawbook’s previous report here. To read more about the Dimitrios Biller backstory and its relation to this litigation, read this previous report.
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