Koua Fong Lee plans to join a lawsuit filed against Toyota Motor Corp. by the families of the three people who were killed in June 2006 when Lee's 1996 Camry smashed into the back of their vehicle.
"One defective automobile caused all these damages," Lee's attorney Brent Schafer said Friday. "Koua lost three years of his life [in prison] and all the opportunities that went along with those three years. He and his family feel Toyota is responsible for that."
A hearing is scheduled for Nov. 8 before U.S. District Judge Ann Montgomery, but may not be necessary if the judge grants Lee's motion without it, and if Toyota does not object, Schafer said.
If the motion is granted, Lee would then file his own complaint and request for damages.
"This is basically a formality, for judicial economy if nothing else," Schafer said. "The two lawsuits filed so far have been joined together; ours would have been added to those two for the purpose of being heard before one judge."
Lee, 32, of St. Paul, was convicted of criminal vehicular homicide in connection with the June 10, 2006, accident in St. Paul. He was sentenced to eight years in prison. His case got another look after Toyota started its massive recall of vehicles, some of which had experienced sudden, unintended acceleration.
He was freed from prison on Aug. 5 after Ramsey County District Judge Joanne Smith ruled that there was enough new evidence to grant him a new trial. County Attorney Susan Gaertner announced later that day that he would not be retried.
Bob Hilliard, a Corpus Christi, Texas, attorney who came to Minnesota to assist in Lee's criminal case, will be the lead attorney in the civil suit, Schafer said.
