Congressional panel chief says Toyota hid data in safety lawsuits+

WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 Kyodo - The chairman of a U.S. congressional panel said Friday that Toyota Motor Corp. had intentionally withheld documents during lawsuits over safety defects in its vehicles.

Edolphus Towns, who heads the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight
and Government Reform, said the documents indicate ''a systemic disregard for
the law and routine violation of court discovery orders in litigation.''
Towns' charge is based on documents and e-mails the committee obtained from
Dimitrios Biller, who worked as a Toyota attorney between April 2003 and
September 2007.
They show the company had an electronic database called ''Books of Knowledge''
that included information about design problems in Toyota vehicles. But the
company had never disclosed their existence in lawsuits, he said.
The committee, which held earlier this week a hearing on the alleged sudden
acceleration problems of Toyota vehicles, sent a letter to Toyota Motor North
America Inc. President Yoshimi Inaba to respond the matter by noon March 12, he
added.
Toyota released a statement, saying, ''We are confident that we have acted
appropriately with respect to product liability litigation.''
''It is not uncommon, however, for companies to object to certain demands for
documents made in litigation. Consistent with the philosophy, we take
appropriate steps to maintain the confidentiality of competitive business
information,'' it said, adding it looks forward to addressing the panel
chairman's concerns.
Toyota has been under fire for recalls of over 8 million vehicles around the
world. Its President Akio Toyoda appeared at a hearing of the committee along
with Inaba.
The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation is scheduled to
hold another hearing next Tuesday, with Inaba and Toyota's executive vice
presidents Takeshi Uchiyamada and Shinichi Sasaki attending to testify over the
recalls.
==Kyodo