GM appealed to the US Supreme Court in an effort to put an end to the lawsuits facing them concerning their alleged coverup and failure to disclose potential knowledge regarding the ignition switch defect that has been alleged to have caused numerous deaths across the country.
For brief background, General Motors faulty ignition switch has been linked to 124 deaths and 275 injuries across the country. The issue was when the vehicle was operating, the ignition switch would inavertently turn “off”. The car would reaming running, but the airbags would be disengaged all the while the driver and/or passengers had no such knowledge of same.
GM underwent Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009 and since such time, they have attempted to shield themsevles from such lawsuits by taking the position that such claims are barred due to the bankruptcy.
However, the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected GM’s bid to block customer lawsuits related to crashes and diminished vehicle value because the plaintiffs had not been properly notified of the defect prior to the bankruptcy filing.
GM, after the 2nd Circuit ruling, appealed to the Supreme Court to overturn the appellate decision and the Supreme’s declined to hear the matter, which leaves the validity of the 2nd Circuit decision in place.
The Supreme Court’s denial, and more importantly, the 2nd Circuit decision, will allow lawsuits to proceed over pre-bankruptcy death, injury, economic loss and used-car economic losses.
Read more about the Supreme Court denial here.
