GM Ignition Problems

Attorneys say GM seeks bankruptcy shield from lawsuit.

The AP (6/13) reports from Detroit that attorneys for a Georgia family “that is trying to reopen a wrongful death lawsuit against General Motors say the company is trying to move the case to federal court so it can use bankruptcy as a shield from the claim.” Attorneys Lance Cooper and Jere Beasley said on Wednesday in a statement “that GM’s court filings run counter to a promise made by GM CEO Mary Barra to fairly compensate families of people killed or those injured in crashes caused by defective ignition switches.” The AP notes that a Federal bankruptcy judge in New York ruled in 2009 “that the new GM is shielded from claims stemming from cars made before the company emerged from bankruptcy protection,” and instead, “the claims go against the old GM, which has limited assets.” The judge “now is being asked to decide if he will allow claims against the new company.”

        Nine states investigating GM recall delay. In continuing coverage of GM’s faulty ignition switches that led to at least 13 deaths, Bloomberg News (6/13, Harris, Smythe, 2.76M) reports that the attorney generals in Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Utah are investigating GM for its failure to launch a recall before this year. Bloomberg reports that the attorneys general include members of both parties, with Democrats in Arkansas, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Kentucky and Republicans in Florida, Indiana, and Utah. Maine Attorney General Jim Tierney, the director of the National State Attorneys General Program said the “attorneys general investigating GM are concerned with addressing constituent concerns about whether their cars will be recalled and allaying those anxieties, he said. The attorneys general also want to see unsafe cars taken off the road.”

        A second article on Bloomberg News (6/13, Sandler, Lee, 2.76M) reports that GM said that a lawsuit concerning a fatal 2010 crash filed in a Georgia state courthouse should be included in a group of 90 cases that have been assigned to a Federal judge in Manhattan. Lawyer Jere Beasley said that GM’s attempt to relocate the case was “a frivolous move calculated to delay,”