American Honda Ordered to Release Inquiry Data : Courts: Two former executives are entitled to results of the auto importer’s internal investigation of the bribery case.

Lawyers defending two former American Honda Motor Co. executives accused of accepting kickbacks in a $15-million bribery scheme won an appellate court order that gives them records of an internal probe the company had fought to keep private.

With the ruling from the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston late last week, the parties will go back to trial Tuesday after a long break for the appeal.

The appellate court ruled that the Torrance auto importer must turn over documents from its internal probe to attorneys for former West Coast sales manager Dennis Josleyn of Penn Valley, Calif., and former national sales director John Billmyer of Raleigh, N.C.

The two are charged with accepting millions of dollars in kickbacks from car dealers who wanted preferential treatment when Hondas were in short supply and hot demand in the 1980s.

Stanley James Cardiges, a Laguna Hills resident and former top Honda official, has been a key government witness after pleading guilty to racketeering, fraud and conspiracy charges in the case earlier this year.

The U.S. District Court trial in Concord has been on hold since late April when American Honda and its lawyers appealed Judge Joseph DiClerico’s decision to release the documents.

Josleyn’s lawyers refused to detail what they had received, saying it would be revealed in court.

Honda’s lawyers had argued that the information about its internal investigation was protected by attorney-client privilege. But DiClerico ruled that American Honda had waived that right to privacy by releasing some of the documents to federal authorities investigating the massive kickback scam.

The appeals court justices issued their ruling without offering a reason, which they said would be released later.

American Honda denies knowing that dealers in 30 states bribed its executives with about $15 million in cash, clothing, furniture, jewelry and other gifts. Federal prosecutors have called the company the primary victim of the kickback scheme because it now faces millions of dollars in civil suits from dealers who claim they suffered financial damage because they did not get preferential treatment.

In all, the government has indicted 24 people in the case, including 18 former American Honda officials. All but four--the two men now on trial and two former dealers awaiting trial--have pleaded guilty.