General Motors will have to go to face the first of several planned bellwether cases over its alleged involvement in an defective ignition switch coverup, a United States judge has ruled. GM was pushing to have the case dismissed.
A jury is now scheduled to hear a suit filed by Robert Scheuer on January 11. Scheuer alleges that a defective ignition switch in his 2003 Saturn Ion caused his vehicle’s airbags to fail to deploy after his car left the road and struck a pair of trees.
Scheuer’s is the first of six planned so-called bellwether cases for GM’s alleged involvement in the ignition switch coverup. Depending on the outcome of those trials, GM could decided to continue litigation or settle any remaining lawsuits.
Bob Hilliard, Scheuer’s lawyers, touts the judge’s decision to go forward with the trial as a victory as it “paves the way for the jury to have an unfettered and full view of GM’s behavior in covering up this defect.”
For its part, GM said it is ready to fight the allegations in court. “We are fully prepared to go to trial, and introduce evidence showing that the ignition switch issue did not cause the injuries in this accident, or cause the airbags not to deploy,” GM spokesman James Cain told Reuters.
GM announced a recall that eventually encompassed 2.6 million small cars — including the Saturn Ion and Sky; Pontiac Solstice and G5; and Chevrolet Cobalt and HHR — for faulty ignition switches in February 2014. However, evidence suggests GM new of the fault a decade earlier. The defect has been linked to 124 deaths and 274 injuries.
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