Toyota Motor Corp. failed to warn a Long Island, New York, driver that his vehicle could unexpectedly accelerate, said a lawyer for a doctor who claims his 2005 Scion sped up uncontrollably and didn’t stop until he hit a tree.

Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, recalled millions of U.S. vehicles, starting in 2009, for defects related to sudden unintended acceleration. Amir Sitafalwalla’s lawsuit, filed in 2008, is the first such claim against Toyota to reach a jury trial in the U.S. since the recalls, reported Bloomberg.

“An accident did not simply happen,” Sitafalwalla’s lawyer, George N. Statfeld of Manhattan, said in his opening statement today in federal court in Central Islip on Long Island. “An accident was caused by the negligence” of Toyota.

“As soon as he attempted to place the vehicle in park – voom – it took off,” Statfeld told jurors and U.S. Magistrate Judge E. Thomas Boyle, who is presiding over the case.

Toyota is facing hundreds of lawsuits claiming lost vehicle value or personal injuries caused by incidents of sudden unintended acceleration. Sitafalwalla claims the automaker knew its vehicles could unintentionally speed up, leaving drivers at risk for accidents and injuries. Sitafalwalla, an emergency room physician, was injured in the October 2005 accident in the driveway of his Port Washington, New York, home.

The company disputes Sitafalwalla’s claim that there was a defect in his Scion or that any flaws caused the accident. Sitafalwalla’s vehicle wasn’t among those recalled.

“We’re here because Toyota Motor Sales firmly believes that there was no defect in this car,” Toyota attorney Brian Crosby said in his opening statement.

Evidence will show that Sitafalwalla “mistakenly put his foot on the accelerator and not on the brake,” Crosby told jurors.

Toyota began a series of recalls in September 2009, announcing that 3.8 million vehicles were being recalled because of a defect that may cause floor mats to jam down the accelerator pedal. In January 2010, the company recalled 2.3 million vehicles to fix sticking gas pedals.

The carmaker, based in Toyota City, Japan, said last month that it’s recalling another 2.17 million vehicles in the U.S. for carpet and floor-mat flaws that could jam gas pedals.

The recalls set off a wave of litigation, including suits by Toyota owners claiming alleged defects leading to sudden acceleration cost a massive loss in the value of their vehicles and claims by individuals or their families of injuries and deaths caused by such incidents.

Most of the federal lawsuits were combined before U.S. District Judge James V. Selna in Santa Ana, California, who is organizing the litigation and overseeing pre-trial evidence- gathering, or discovery. Selna has been pushing to have the first cases before him go to trial in early 2013. Sitafalwalla’s suit, which was filed before the recalls, wasn’t sent to Selna.

Many of the lawsuits claim that loose floor mats and sticky pedals don’t explain all episodes of sudden acceleration and that the electronic throttle system in Toyota vehicles is to blame.

Toyota has disputed any flaws in its electronic throttle control system. Last month, NASA, the U.S. space agency, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said their probe of possible electronics defects found no causes for unintended acceleration other than sticking accelerator pedals and floor mats that jammed the pedals.

Sitafalwalla claims in court papers that Toyota failed to correct a “faulty electronic throttle system” or “faulty floor mat components.” Sitafalwalla also claims Toyota knew of prior incidents like his and should have installed a “failsafe braking system to override any sudden unintended acceleration.”

Statfeld told jurors today that Sitafalwalla’s accident had three possible causes: the electronic throttle-control system caused the acceleration; the driver-side floor mat pushed onto the accelerator; or Toyota failed to install a brake-override system.

Defense lawyer Crosby, of Gibson, McAskill & Crosby in Buffalo, told the jury that the only way the car could go into a wide open throttle as it did was for the driver to apply the accelerator and not have his or her foot on the brake. A brake override system only works when the brake is applied, which it wasn’t in this case, he said.

Celeste Migliore, a Toyota spokeswoman, said in an e-mail statement today that “while we sympathize with anyone involved in an accident in one of our vehicles, Toyota intends to defend itself vigorously against Dr. Sitafalwalla’s unintended acceleration claim. We are confident that the evidence will show there was no electrical or mechanical malfunction of his vehicle’s electronic throttle control or braking systems, and that his claims of pedal entrapment cannot be substantiated.”

If the jury finds Toyota liable, it will hear evidence on what, if any, damages should be awarded.

The case is Sitafalwalla v. Toyota, 08-03001, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York (Central Islip).

Ford Motor Co. settled a lawsuit over the death of a New York Mets minor league baseball player in an Explorer accident after a jury ordered the company to pay his estate $131 million, Bloomberg reported.

A Jasper County, Miss., jury awarded the verdict today and the case was settled on confidential terms before punitive damages could be considered, said attorney Tab Turner, who represented the family of Brian Cole.

Cole, 27, was ejected from an Explorer in a March 2001 accident in Florida while he was going home from spring training with the Mets. His family claimed the Explorer’s seat belt was defective and failed to keep him in the vehicle during the rollover, Turner said.

“His belt was still buckled after the accident was over but he was thrown from the car,” Turner said today. “Physical evidence” showed that Cole had been wearing the belt, he said.

The jury also awarded $1.5 million to Cole’s cousin, Ryan, who was injured in the accident. The total verdict is the eighth-largest jury award in 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It’s the ninth biggest U.S. verdict against an auto company.

Brian Cole “was not wearing his safety belt,” said Marcey Evans, a Ford spokeswoman. “His passenger, who was properly belted, walked away from the accident,” she said.

Cole had been traveling at more than 80 miles an hour before drifting off the road and losing control of the Explorer, she said.

At the time of Cole’s death, he was an outfielder in the AA minor leagues, two steps from the majors, Turner said. “He had been player of the year in the Mets organization,” he said.

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Ford Motor Co. won a new trial in a lawsuit over brain injuries suffered by a teenager in a Bronco II rollover accident that resulted in a $31 million jury award against the automaker, Bloomberg reported.

The South Carolina Supreme Court found a judge overseeing Jesse Branham III’s case allowed the teen’s lawyers to use inadmissible evidence to convince jurors Ford officials knew the sport-utility vehicle was defectively designed and had a propensity for rolling over.

The judge also shouldn’t have allowed Branham’s attorneys to offer evidence of Ford executives’ pay when seeking punitive damages against the automaker during the 2006 trial, the court said.

“The admission of this evidence was error and highly prejudicial,” the state’s highest court said in an Aug. 16 ruling.

Branham’s case was one of 12 verdicts against the automaker involving rollovers of the company’s vehicles stretching back to June 2004, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Juries ordered Ford to pay a total of $568 million in damages over the accidents. The teen’s verdict also was one of the largest jury awards in 2006 against an automaker, according to the data.

Branham was disappointed with the appellate court’s decision, said Ronnie Crosby, a Hampton, S.C.-based lawyer for the family.

“We believe there is ample evidence to demonstrate the Bronco II is defective and unreasonably dangerous and we’re eager to present that evidence to another jury,” Crosby said in a phone interview Thursday.

Marcey Evans, a spokeswoman for Ford, declined to comment.

Branham, who was 17 when the jury returned its 2006 verdict, was a rear-seat passenger in a 1987 Bronco II when it flipped over on a country road in southwestern South Carolina. Branham’s parents, who sued on their son’s behalf, said the Bronco II rolled over because the sport-utility vehicle is inherently unstable.

The Hampton state-court jury awarded $16 million in actual damages and $15 million in punitive damages. Ford appealed the verdict.

The accident occurred after the driver, Cheryl Jane Hale, turned to look at children in the back seat of the Bronco, according to the appellate court decision. The vehicle began drifting off the road and she steered hard to the left, causing the SUV to roll, the filing shows.

“No one was wearing a seatbelt,” Justice John W. Kittredge noted in the ruling.

Branham’s family alleged Ford knew the Bronco was defectively designed and had a tendency to roll over. The teen’s lawyers produced internal Ford documents showing a debate about the suspension system and called a former Ford executive to testify about rollover concerns, according to the court ruling.

The family’s attorneys also introduced evidence about rollover problems that postdated the Bronco’s 1986 manufacture date, Kittredge noted. The trial judge should have barred that evidence under state law, he added.

The trial judge also erred in failing to bar evidence of similar accidents from being presented to jurors, Kittredge said.

LOS ANGELES – A federal judge on Friday drew upon a group of experienced attorneys who have handled some of the largest product liability cases in the U.S. to represent hundreds of consumers suing Toyota over unintended acceleration problems with its vehicles, the Associated Press reported.

U.S. District Judge James Selna appointed four attorneys to be lead counsel for two committees that deal primarily with the biggest issues facing Toyota — wrongful death claims, and claims filed by those who believe their cars have lost value because the Japanese automaker has recalled about 8 million vehicles.

More than 320 lawsuits have been filed in federal and state court against the Japanese automaker after it began its recall because of acceleration problems in several models and brake glitches with the Prius hybrid.

Toyota blamed faulty floor mats and sticky accelerator pedals for the unintended acceleration. Some plaintiffs also claim that there is a defect with Toyota’s electronic throttle control system, but Toyota denies that.

Among those who were selected Friday are Steve Berman of Seattle, whose firm last month earned a $200 million settlement against Charles Schwab over claims that investors were misled about the safety of mortgage-backed securities. The deal still must be approved by a judge.

Berman who will head up the economic loss panel, along with Los Angeles-based attorney Marc Seltzer, said he expects a vigorous battle from the Japanese automaker.

A federal jury sided with a Pennsylvania dealer in November when it awarded him $4 million in damages in a lawsuit against GMAC Financial Services, according to the Reading Eagle.

Donald Mente is the former owner of Mente Chevrolet in Richmond Township and Mente Chrysler Dodge Jeep in Maxatawny Township, both in Pennsylvania.

Mente filed a lawsuit in May 2008 accusing GMAC of improperly shutting down his two dealerships in July 2007. He said GMAC accused him of selling vehicles without paying for them first and then abruptly closed his dealerships.

Prior to the closures, Mente said GMAC demanded that he make immediate payments on his inventory.

“Within a week, they drained all the money out, and 77 people were out of work,” he told the Reading Eagle. “I didn’t know what was happening. I had never had anything like this happen to me before.”

Mente told the newspaper he tried to find a buyer for the shuttered dealerships, but the deal fell through.

During a two-week trial before U.S. Judge Juan R. Sanchez in Philadelphia, witnesses testified that GMAC officials took control of the dealerships when Mente’s former controller, Donna Johnson, was on vacation in July 2007.

GMAC argued that 11 vehicles were not paid for by Mente when they conducted an audit at the Chevrolet dealership before closing the two dealerships, according to the Reading Eagle.