VW wants to prevent use of monkey study in US process

Since over the exhaust gas tests on monkeys is reported, shows VW shaken. Corporate lawyers have apparently already realized the explosiveness of the issue earlier: For months they have tried to keep the study out of a US trial.


Auspuff eines Audi-Fahrzeugs (Symbolbild)

Exhaust of an Audi vehicle (icon)

Wednesday, 31.01.2018
09:37 clock

Volkswagen is fighting hard in the US against the use of documents on monkey flue gas experiments in a lawsuit. For months now, the US subsidiary of the German car maker delivers a legal exchange with plaintiff lawyers in order to prevent the documents on the animal experiments in a process are used.

This emerges from court documents that are reported by the NDR and that are also available to the dpa news agency. Already on 13 October 2017, the VW lawyers filed an application to exclude the study from the proceedings. The letter states: “The sole purpose of the plaintiff is to produce a sharp and emotional response from the jury in the hope that they will punish VW America for something that has nothing to do with the plaintiffs.”

The last such application submitted to VW on 26 January. Plaintiff lawyer Michael Melkerson countered that the study was an important piece of evidence, as it demonstrates a deliberate scheme of persistent fraud. In addition, she shows a lack of remorse and is therefore necessary to enforce fines and damages. VW did not want to comment on the procedure on request. “We will not comment on the lawsuit,” said the group.

More on the subject: Were car managers informed about the exhaust gas experiments?

The trial is scheduled for February 26 at the Fairfax County district court in Virginia. But whether this happens depends on whether the parties agree in out-of-court settlement. Despite the billion comparisons in the “diesel gate” scandal, VW still argues in the US with many diesel customers who want to claim compensation instead of a class action on their own before regional courts. According to lawyer Melkerson, seven such lawsuits were initially admitted to the trial. However, the four cases that were to be negotiated were resolved shortly before the start of the trial by VW.

That the monkey experiments were still public, according to Melkerson lay primarily on the documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney, who buoyed the investigation files for the Netflix documentary “Dirty Money”.

After also the “New York Times” got access, published on Friday both together the material. According to a commission sponsored by VW, Daimler and BMW commissioned US researchers with a study in 2014, ten monkeys had to inhale for hours diesel exhaust gases in a laboratory. It was intended to show how much the pollutant load has fallen due to more modern exhaust technology.

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