Dallas, Texas 07/31/2014 (FINANCIALSTRENDS) – General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) is now party to fresh suits. This time it is a Texas-based lawyer who has filed a lawsuit against GM, before the US District Court, Manhattan, in New York on behalf of 658 people for the cause of death and injuries caused by faulty-ignition switches fitted cars made by the car maker.
As per the lawsuit filed, there are 29 claims of death caused by the technical fault while 629 were injuries.
Since all of these injuries and faults were caused after 2009, the car marker can no longer claim technical protection of bankruptcy, an issue the manufacturer emerged from in July 2009.
Attorney Robert Hilliard in his statement noted that, “It’s certainly not a legal given that GM will be successful in its attempts to use this ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ bankruptcy card.”
The claim filed against General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) is that, despite being aware of the fault it failed to rectify the error of faulty ignition switches. The earliest reports of such stalled switches were reported as early as 2001, but the car maker had not recalled the cars until 2014. The exact nature of the fault was the error in the ignition switches which cut off engines, knocking out power steering as well as the brakes. They disabled brakes as well as air bags thereby disabling the protective nature of air bags.
The lawsuit filed against General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) on behalf of 658 claimants seeks over $75,000 as damages for each of plaintiffs. Currently GM is using the services of Kenneth Feinberg, who is a compensation expert who settles injury and death claims for such situations as BP Gulf Oil Spill, September 11 terrorist attacks and others. He has admitted that GM has not placed limitations on the compensation he can set for victims.
