Miller Barondess Wins $15.8 Million Jury Verdict Against Toyota

Miller Barondess, LLP, announced today an Orange County jury has awarded $15.8 million in damages to their client Roger Hogan, President and CEO of Claremont Toyota and Capistrano Toyota. The jury found Toyota liable for breach of contract regarding safety related defects on more than 800,000 model years 2010-2014 Prius vehicles in the US (2.5 million globally) that pose an unreasonable risk to safety. Toyota has been misleading dealers, like Hogan, about safety defects in these vehicles for years. Hogan brought these defects to the attention of Toyota and the government in 2017 and took the unprecedented step of putting more than 120 vehicles on stop sale at his dealerships when Toyota refused to issue an appropriate fix for these vehicles.

“We are very pleased the jury recognized the facts presented in our case,” said Amnon Siegel, attorney for the Hogan family and partner at Miller Barondess. “After a hard-fought battle, this is vindication for the Hogans and sends a message to Toyota that it will be held accountable for its wrongful actions affecting its dealers, customers and the public.”

“The Hogans, Claremont and Capistrano Toyota would like to thank the jury, the Court, our attorneys from Miller Barondess, Amnon Siegel, Casey Sypek and Andrew Schrader for their hard work, trust in our cause and commitment to pursuing justice for our customers. We are grateful to our legal team for their continued trust and belief in our causes. God has created our path; the message is clear, protect the innocent and unknowing. We have done just that. We hope that this verdict will lead Toyota to do the right thing,” said Roger Hogan, President and CEO, Claremont and Capistrano Toyota.

“Toyota made a corporate decision to conduct a cheap, ineffective recall that it knew would not work,” said Siegel. “Rather than spend the money to replace the defective inverters in these Priuses, Toyota chose to save more than $2.3 billion by doing software updates that left the defective hardware in place and did not fix the problem. As a result, in 2018, Toyota issued another recall on these vehicles acknowledging drivers were still at risk. The jury has now let Toyota know this is unacceptable.”

About Miller Barondess:

Miller Barondess, founded a decade ago, is a 30 lawyer litigation boutique specializing in high-stakes litigation and trial work. Amnon Siegel is ranked among the top trial lawyers in the nation, and the attorneys have represented clients in a wide range of litigation areas including large contract, banking and real estate disputes, intellectual property, corporate and partnership control contests, employment disputes, bankruptcy litigation, antitrust, entertainment, securities, civil rights, and class actions. The attorneys hail from top law schools and the unique work environment has attracted talent from the nation's elite law firms. For more information, please visit www.millerbarondess.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190716005296/en/