General Motors’ Ignition Switch Problems Lead To Lawsuit In CA
2
Sponsored Links
In the continuing story on defective ignition switches, General Motors has been dealt another lawsuit demanding that the company be held liable for knowing about and concealing the problem before 2009. But this one is with a twist.
According to Automotive News, “GM is a different legal entity than the one that filed for bankruptcy protection and reorganized in 2009. The so-called new GM is not responsible under the terms of its bankruptcy for legal claims relating to incidents that took place before July 2009. Those claims must be brought against what remains of the ‘old’ or pre-bankruptcy GM.”
The new lawsuit suggests that the entity that was General Motors before 2009 should be able to be sued “because of the active concealment by Old GM and GM,” pointing out that “GM was responsible for reporting to the federal government any safety-related problems for cars made before its bankruptcy.”
General Motors announced a recall for the ignition switches in February, but since then it has been revealed that GM may have been familiar with the issue as far back as 2001 but continued to use the mechanism through 2007. Meanwhile, the NHTSA has been forced to answer why it didn’t force GM to recall affected cars after an investigator mentioned the problem in a crash investigation in 2007.
The ignition switch problem has been linked to 12 deaths, resulting in February’s recall and a federal investigation, an internal probe by GM, and preparations for hearings by Congress.
Sponsored Links
OK, how do the owners think they are due money?
Besides the fact that these vehicles were built by a company no longer in business, unless they have had an accident due to the ignition switch or physical damage if the air bags do not go off after the accident I do not see any damages.
Nothing has happened to the owners so no damages for physical pain or loss.
Vehicles are fully fixable with a new part so no damages for loss of value (vehicles are blue book less than $5000 anyway).
I do not get how they will prove they deserve money. If they do get money any safety recall would be deserving of monies.
Any lawyers out there?
If GM has to pay anything, it can be to the customers who did suffer any physical damages, including the twelve deaths. But a class suit will not win.
Now if they established a class suit against Toyota who did ignore the acceleration problem, and was fined over a billion dollars, those customers have a much better chance of getting money unless Toyota retires from the American market (a much preferred alternative!).