General Motors is calling on a judge to discard an ignition switch lawsuit after asserting the plaintiffs fabricated proof in the trial. The automaker states the plaintiffs and their legal representatives misguided the jury about the key of a car included in a fatal crash in 2011.
General Motors recalled 2.6 million vehicles in 2014 as too much weight on their key chains can trigger the ignition switches to slip out of position. As per plaintiff Zachary Stevens, this problem is exactly what caused him to lose control of the 2007 Saturn Sky he was driving 5 years back. After crashing into another automobile, the driver of that vehicle was killed. During the trial, Stevens and the other complainants, his parents, presented jurors with a key chain including 3 rings for products including a gym subscription card and an Eiffel Tower decoration.
But General Motors maintains the key displayed in the courtroom does not actually belong to the automobile. In a filing, the car manufacturer stated Stevens had actually asserted earlier that he was driving with simply a couple of products on his key. The alleged false claims “have hamstrung the search for the truth,” General Motors stated.
If the judge can’t dismiss the case entirely, General Motors wants jurors to receive directions to disregard the supposedly incorrect claims regarding the key. The suit is the very first of about 20 pending ignition switch lawsuits to visit trial in state court of Texas. Up until now, General Motors has spent about $2 billion in criminal and civil charges connected to the ignition switch issue.
A judge in Texas recently dismissed another claim against General Motors from a lady who blamed an auto accident on an ignition switch concern, citing an absence of specialist statement to support her accusations. Previously this year, a judge dismissed the very first of federal switch cases set to head to trial. The only one of those to reach a jury was a 2014 accident in New Orleans, and the judgment considered General Motors not responsible.
