Last week, U.S. District Judge James Selna, who is overseeing all domestic unintended acceleration litigation against Toyota, dismissed a class-action filed by a group of 41 foreign consumers.
The plaintiffs come from 13 countries and contend that Judge Selna’s court is the best place to handle their case because it raises many of the same issues as the domestic litigation. The heart of both the domestic class-actions and the potential foreign consumer class action are the same: that Toyota failed to install acceleration override systems, as the company’s competitors did. Toyota countered that these claims should be brought in the respective plaintiff’s home countries.
The class actions seek to recover for personal injuries and economic loss.