Owners of General Motors vehicles plagued by the ignition switch recall will have their day in court once again. After the owners and a trust that holds many of GM liabilities pre-bankruptcy agreed to a deal last August, the trust dropped the deal days later. Today began a three-day-long bench trial to determine the deal’s validity.
Reuters reported Judge Martin Glenn of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York will preside over the case. GM lawyer Susheel Kirpalani told the judge, “Sometimes people simply get cold feet, even when they get married.” “And the same applies to settlements, your honor.”
The argument to toss out the $1 billion settlement will likely be an uphill battle for GM. Judge Glenn told GM, “I have trouble saying it passes the smell test.” He referred to a two-hour-long meeting between GM and the trust in August. Afterward, the trust walked back on its agreement with car owners affected.
The claims arose from the automaker’s infamous 2014 recall for 2.6 million vehicles. The faulty ignition switches were linked to 124 deaths.
GM would pay $1 billion to settle millions of claims over economic loss and between 400 and 500 personal injury and wrongful death claims. In total, the trust would have accepted $10 billion in claims. It’s worth noting another 2.4 million claims will be settled in another court still.
Comments
These people should not get one dime! This case should be thrown out of court, just like the rest of them should have!
These cases have been over blown for years and the so called victims only have themselves to blame. I have zero sympathy for any of these people!
I agree – dying due to your own negligence – driving at a high speed, off the road, without a seatbelt, while heavily intoxicated – is NOT the fault of the manufacturer. It’s likely, in that situation, with an airbag, they still would have died. Is it also GM’s fault they were driving drunk too, and that they didn’t put their seat belt on?
FWIW, I have a 2007 Cobalt LT, which is lowered, on FE5 struts/shocks, and which I have autocrossed and used to DD on Michigan roads – the latter resulting in some pretty jarring hits due to potholes/craters and running over a piece of concrete (unavoidable on an offramp) that actually lifted the entire car up because it was taller than I have ground clearance for. Never once have I had the key turn off – and I used to have all of my keys on the key ring, as well.
Fuck you Brian.
You are a deplorable human being.
We lost a father, son, husband, brother, etc in a car accident due to GM’s cover up, and I’ll be damned if you think we should blame ourselves or lost ones.
How can you justify a corporation when so many lives were lost?
I hate that in this society people have a hard time placing blame on the victims! There’s no way it could be the driver’s fault, it must have been the car for some reason!
Losing power to one’s car does not make the car go out of control and crash.
I can’t believe the courts allowed these people’s family’s to cash in when it was the driver’s responsible!
Remember the Prius driver who, during the big beat up on Toyota throttles, called the police because the throttle was ‘sticking’, The Officer got him on camera with his foot flat on the, you guessed it, throttle…
Remember not all of were at fault or negligent just there was no explanation to what caused my coma other then going into an S turn losing power brakes and power steering and no airbag deploying. That was the investigation officer found and my service department in the marines found. I live with headaches and residuals from my TBI to go along with my deployment history which together with my tbi issues made for a long 8 Months. But I’m finding it hard for you to give your biased opinion if you haven’t lived through a TBI don’t talk you can’t imagibe how altered your life would be… I didn’t even mention the fact they lied to me my family and our attorney saying they had no idea what caused my crash then in their internal investigation in 2012 use my crash and accident citing it as being caused by my switch even explaining how it turned off buts it’s ok we filed Bankruptcy we are free from guilt
You may have lost power steering and brakes but you didn’t lose the ability to steer and brake the car. That’s your fault! The airbag would not have been a problem had you kept control of the car and didn’t hit anything!
So yes this is and will always be your fault for the accident!
The next time you get low on gas drive the car until the engine shuts off. When this happens it is your responsibility to keep your car under control! Just because you lose power doesn’t mean you lose the ability to control the car!
I tried I went into a tree ? and it happened because when paired when already turning into an S turn made it hard. There a few that were at fault I wasn’t one of them but still served my country even with the short term memory just made my last deployment very difficult but I don’t need to defend myself with you I already did my time in the military who are you to judge. What gives you any right to judge others? I at least have the police and a forensic investigator on my side who deemed it my switch which caused me to lose control..Like I said I’m a pre bankruptcy case so they can’t get held accountable for something that was old Gm I also forgot to say the switch shut off my pretensioners on my seat belt causing that to fail but my fault I guess
Do you have any idea of what it’s like going 45 into an S turn losing power Brakes and power steering together not to mention then no airbag or seatbelts….. Even if your a car expert you can not tell me I’m the reason my belts and airbag fails
My vehicle shutoff and I had no powersteering or brakes. I can only speak for what happened with my vehicle. I refused to drive my vehicle and had my vehicle towed to GM dealership so they could perform their diagnostics. They lost my vehicle and have refused to get me a rental or pay me anything. My lawyer does not care about the lemon warranty claim so I am just stuck.
brian your an idiot i was hit head on by a drunk driver guess it was my fault if i didnt drive i would be fine now kinda like you if you would stop breathing it would solve stupid
So if you were hit head on then why are you blaming GM? Clearly the cause of the accident and the injuries was the other drivers fault!
Some people in this world are just sad! They always need something or someone else to take care of them!
Hate to say it but Brian has a solid argument. How is that GM’s fault if a drunk driver hit you? Your airbags not deploy correctly? The airbags not performing under this lawsuit is directly related to the keys and so if it was a drunk driver rather than the ignition (I BELIEVE, NOT A JUDGE) that it should not be considered in relation to the class action.
Brian, I agree that many people are just looking to blame GM to g et a handout; however, there are also a large group of people who were unaware, at no fault of their own, of the GM management’s illegal and upset-tingly unethical actions who are unable to qualify due to loss of evidence.
Sticking throttle
Turn the engine off!!!
Problem solved!
And yes it happened to me and that’s what I Did!
Sit on your hands
Stop typing
Problem solved
And yes this happened to me But I woke up a month later Military kept me 2006 sound like a Old GM employee maybe Valukus cousin the one who altered the P/N for a cheaper switch
Safety alert three weeks after my crash heavy keychain can cause your ignition switch problems guess I missed that sleeping in a coma..
This has happened to me! When it happened to me it was in a vehicle didn’t have power steering oe power brakes or power anything.
You do realize that the steering and brakes still work in non power mode? People use to drive cars and trucks with zero power options for decades. And they had zero problems keeping control of a car when the power to the engine is lost!
So a similar thing happened to me, going around a tight corner at around 50 engine shuts off making the vehicle dead in the water. Man handled the vehicle over to the side of the road with no power brakes or power steering and no airbags installed, only lap belts because that’s what cars and trucks came with back then!
So controlling a car or truck with zero power is normal people did it for decades so it should be not be a issue in a car or truck today!
Translation your fault!
I know cars didn’t used to have it which is why I bought one that did or so I thought. what does that prove that because I have been used to driving with it I’m suppose to compensate for it changing to not power steering going around the turn without power breaks catching one off guard but ultimately losing control in the winter of 06 no seat belts either they always work or wait we’re their non working seatbelts as well…. times are changing as are vehicles if I wanted to ride an antique car I would’ve bought one!
Yes now your finally get it! A person should be able to control a car with or without power options working!
You make a bad lawyer for GM go ahead and use that excuse as to why all my safety devices failed is my fault. I mean I’m thankful they decided to own up and tell the marines we will pay back his medical in 2009 so I’m not after anything I was back into marine shape after a year of light duty in the marines but Brian this accident we know could have been prevented so could my injuries which were a TBI into my steering wheel my deployment injuries came 3 years later in Afghanistan. I can’t really speak for all this defect but after a decade past then I get a phone call from GM Detroit asking me if I knew my name was in their internal investigation of my switch I said no which is how I found out about this defect 2014…
The whole legal system is just back a s s ward! They take cases to court that have zero reasons to be there! Companies will settle and do pay outs to stop the bleeding but it doesn’t make it right.
Victims or so called victims need to learn to take responsibility for their actions. But they don’t because there’s to much money to make!
Your right some of these cases are bogus looking for an easy buck which is why I’m glad the judge threw out there airbags deployed.
FYI I’m not disagreeing with you on your take to those under the influence of alcohol or drugs. And my crash was a front 21 inches into the hood of my car tree which should have caused my airbag to deploy GM admitted it in there Valukus report but since my crash is prior to their bankruptcy I see no money but I’m telling my story to share others like me who weren’t at fault just didn’t expect the unexpected at the last second… also I’m not agreeing with you just pointing out your blindness when you buy something not as advertised you want and get a refund not 323000 in medical bills which the marines paid because the Military courts found me not at fault and then after learning to walk again at least now a shell of my former self they didn’t care it was Iraq and Afghanistan as long as you can carry a MK-16 and catch a bullet they didn’t care I don’t understand your case if someone sold you something that was broken would you not get your money back. In my case it almost killed me just me i was then told by GM your airbags should have gone off we don’t know why in 2008 but you can’t sue or get your money we filed bankruptcy it’s like it never happened except I’m still here unlike the other 124 people