Court Annuls $18 Million Judgment in Case Filed by Justice Kassio Nunes Marques

The Court of Justice of Piauí (TJ-PI) annulled, on Friday (18), a ruling that had ordered Toyota do Brasil to pay R$ 18 million (roughly $3.4 million) to dealership Nordeste Veículos Ltda. over a lost vehicle. The 2008 lawsuit was filed by then-attorneys Kassio Nunes Marques — now a justice on Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court (STF) and president of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) — and José Wilson Ferreira de Araújo Júnior, now an appellate judge and president of the Piauí Regional Electoral Court (TRE-PI).

Why the ruling was annulled

By majority vote, the appellate judges granted Toyota’s rescissory action. Rapporteur judge Ricardo Gentil Eulálio Dantas cited “clear violations of procedural rules,” a denial of due process, and a premature ruling that skipped over evidence the automaker had requested. According to him, the size of the award and the dispute over the extent of damages called for a more thorough evidentiary process before any judgment.

In values at the time, the award was equivalent to 212 new cars, with more than 80% of it set as moral damages. Enforcement of the judgment had already reached R$ 4 million before it was annulled.

Next steps and Nunes Marques’s response

Following the ruling, Judge Dantas ordered the case sent back to the trial court for a new evidentiary phase, procedural review and a fresh judgment, with due process guaranteed for both sides. In a statement made in June, before the TJ-PI’s decision, Justice Kassio Nunes Marques said he had acted “legitimately as an attorney between 2008 and 2010” and noted that he left legal practice in 2011.