Four consumer protection cases filed in California against Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. were transferred to the Southern District of Florida to join pending product liability lawsuits involving Takata air bag defects.

The “tagalong” cases from the Central District of California were transferred under rule 7.1 of the United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, which allows the conditional transfer of cases with links to other suits nationwide.

The four cases joining the MDL were brought against Toyota by Abraham Hirschel, Yossi Shimshi, Mitra Bazzal and Joshua Kopple, all of whom opposed the transfer motion and hoped to try their cases individually. But the panel found the cases involved similar facts and decided against duplicating efforts. It concluded the cases were similar to ongoing multidistrict litigation already consolidated in South Florida before U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno.

MDL is a federal legal procedure created to speed up complex cases, and is typically used in product liability suits or air disaster litigation.

The cases “share factual questions arising from allegations that certain Takata-manufactured airbags are defective in that they can violently explode and eject metal debris, resulting in injury or even death,” according to the transfer order.

Click here to read the transfer order

Toyota roped the Japan-based automotive parts company Takata Corp. into the cases when it filed cross-complaints against Takata and TK Holdings Inc.

On April 23, 2018, Toyota argued in favor of making the cases part of the MDL against Takata, asking for a momentary pause in litigation until the JPML could rule on whether to transfer it.

The plaintiffs disagreed, arguing that their cases were about the handling of their warranty requests to Toyota, not Takata's defective air bags.

Hirschel's case against Toyota alleged a string of delays in repairing a car that was recalled because of a defective air bag. The recall was part of a global pullback of air bags made by Takata.

In Hirschel's 2016 complaint, he claimed Toyota violated consumer protection laws by refusing to take back his 2011 Sienna and correct its defects — something he alleged was covered under express warranty. After months of back and forth, Toyota rejected his request in October 2016.

The plaintiffs also raised jurisdictional questions and claimed it would be inconvenient to transfer, but the panel pointed out that it ”looks to the convenience of the parties and witnesses, not just those of a single plaintiff or defendant.”

Deployed Takata air bag. Photo: autoevolution.com

The move takes Toyota out of any settlement and essentially transfers blame to the air bag manufacturer, Takata, which caused Toyota to recall 1,654,713 cars with defective air bags on May 23, 2016, according to Hirschel's complaint.

The MDL stems from a deal brokered in February, which plantiffs attorneys at the time told the Daily Business Review was “better than nothing” as they at least allow claimants their day in court.

The Takata air bag recalls in 2013 affected 19 different car makers and was considered to be a “serious safety threat” to millions of drivers by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Takata eventually buckled under the weight of recall costs, multi-million dollar fines and lawsuits, and filed for bankruptcy on June 25, 2017, ultimately making an agreement allowing lawsuits to be settled with a trust fund.

Counsel to Toyota, John W. Myers and Sean D. Beatty of Beatty and Myers, California, referred all questions to a Toyota spokesperson, who gave the following statement about the Hirschel case: ”Hirschel is a lemon law case that was recently transferred into the MDL over the objection of plaintiff's counsel. The case involves a Takata inflator that has already been replaced pursuant to the recall. The case was transferred to the MDL because it is a related case and Toyota is obligated to tag such cases.”

Counsel to the plaintiffs, Natan Davoodi of The Law Offices of Natan Davoodi in California, did not respond to requests for comment before deadline.

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