Complainants of the four lawsuits filed in Texas regarding the recalled cars of General Motors Co encountered a snag yesterday when a panel of judges voted unanimously to stop the suits, Bloomberg reported. GM and Delphi Automative Systems LLC were sued for the accidents allegedly caused by the automaker's defective parts.
The Detroit-based company had since recalled 2.59 million of its small cars for its faulty ignition switches. According to GM, the ignition switch in some of the cars could slip out of the "on" position due to heavy rings or jarring. The event will result into a power shutdown, which would deactivate the vehicle's air bags. GM has acknowledged that the defect has links to at least 13 deaths.
A panel of judges at the Texas Supreme Court has granted the companies' immediate requests to stop the lawsuits, Bloomberg said. According to the companies, the need for the lawsuits to stop was warranted for the fact that they anticipate more injury claims from other customers. GM stated that it is also separately facing a minimum of 79 lawsuits filed by their customers, who have demanded as high as $10 billion over the loss of value of their vehicles due to the defective ignition switches.
On the other hand, GM and Delphi would reportedly want the panel to decide whether to combine similar suits into one, single group complaint, which will then be brought to a single judge to handle the case more efficiently. Bloomberg said the two companies had twice requested rulings from both a trial court and a so-called multidistrict legislation panel in Texas, stating that only two of the four customer groups had agreed to wait.
Despite a series of recalls following the first one over the ignition switches, Reuters reported that GM still enjoys good sales numbers. The number one automaker in the US has recently beat the industry average in terms of sales this month, and over 10 dealers that were interviewed by Reuters are optimistic about safety of the new car lineup of GM despite the latest recalls.
