More GM Depositions Ahead
March, 2015
NY Times reports:“ While General Motors has settled one potentially explosive lawsuit related to defective ignition switches, the company still faces the possibility of depositions of its employees in a broader class-action case.
A number of current and former G.M. employees are scheduled to be questioned under oath, beginning in May, in a sweeping case in federal court in New York.
G.M. avoided depositions in the wrongful-death case settled last week with the parents of Brooke Melton, 29, a Georgia woman who was killed in a crash in a Chevrolet Cobalt equipped with a faulty ignition switch.
But the lawyers who represented Ms. Melton’s parents said on Monday that legal efforts to collect internal G.M. documents and depose employees would continue nonetheless.” See
The automaker has argued that its 2009 bankruptcy restructuring included a condition protecting it from product liability claims over vehicles produced before it exited bankruptcy. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Gerber is expected to rule on that issue in coming months.
Cooper told reporters that documents from those “lost economic value” could shed new light on what and when GM knew of the ignition-switch defect and whether senior executives, including CEO Mary Barra, knew about it before December 2013.
An independent investigation conducted by former federal prosecutor Anton Valukas was very critical of GM’s handling of the ignition-switch crisis. But it concluded that Barra and other senior executives didn’t learn of the problem’s scope until shortly before GM began recalling about 2.5 million small cars in February 2014.
Feinberg’s fund added three claims as of Friday, bringing the total to 67 death claims and 113 personal injury claims eligible for compensation. He and his staff have received 4,343 claims, and 1,492 are still under review.” Seehttp://www.freep.com/story/money/2015/03/16/general-motors-ignition-switch-deaths/24847701/
