Toyota Motor Corp. agreed to pay $25.5 million to settle an investor lawsuit led by the $36.3 billion Maryland State Retirement and Pension System, Baltimore, over the company's alleged failure to disclose information on unintended acceleration problems that caused the stock to plunge in 2010, according to court documents.
Lawyers for the shareholders outlined the proposed settlement in a filing in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Tuesday. The settlement requires the approval of U.S. District Court Judge Dale Fischer.
Toyota shares plunged 18% in the seven trading days to Feb. 1, 2010, erasing $32 billion from its market value, over recalls of vehicles relating to the acceleration problems. The investors claimed internal documents show that Toyota deliberately hid the problems and knew about defects as early as 2000.
The automaker has reached an agreement on the lawsuit, Joichi Tachikawa, a spokesman for Toyota, said by telephone. He declined to provide more details on the case. Toyota denied wrongdoing and liability, and agreed to settle the lawsuit as further litigation could be protracted and expensive, according to the court papers.
The company recalled more than 10 million vehicles for problems related to unintended acceleration from 2009 to 2010. It paid a record $48.8 million in fines to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for how some of the recalls were conducted.
