Toyota seeks dismissal of lawsuits

NEW YORK – Toyota Motor Corp. has asked a federal court in California to throw out lawsuits over acceleration defects in its cars, saying many of the plaintiffs never identified any defect or experienced sudden, unintended acceleration.

The automaker filed its motion in court Monday.

“Toyota is confident that its cars provide safe, reliable transportation and that the plaintiffs have no credible claims of loss or defect,” Cari K. Dawson, an attorney for Toyota, said in a company statement.

Hundreds of lawsuits were filed against Toyota after the company started recalling millions of vehicles because of acceleration problems in several models and brake defects with the Prius hybrid.

Toyota has recalled more than 10 million vehicles worldwide over the last year. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it has received about 3,000 reports of sudden acceleration from Toyota drivers in the past decade, including 93 deaths. The government, however, has confirmed only four deaths from one crash.

Some of the remaining lawsuits seek compensation for injury and death due to sudden acceleration, while others claim economic loss from owners who say the value of their cars and trucks plummeted after the recalls.

All of the federal cases were consolidated and assigned to a judge in Southern California.

U.S.-listed shares of Toyota closed Tuesday trading up 60 cents at $70.23.