GM, Delphi ask Texas court to consolidate ignition-related suits

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May 21, 2014 - 1:43 pm ET

HOUSTON (Bloomberg) -- General Motors LLC and Delphi Automotive Systems LLC asked the Texas Supreme Court to merge four driver-injury suits tied to faulty ignition switches into one state case, just as it earlier moved to combine litigation over the loss of value tied to cars recalled due to the defect.

“Litigating each of these matters separately will involve enormous time and expense,” GM’s attorneys said Tuesday in a filing at the Texas Supreme Court in Austin. The wrongful-death and physical-injury cases filed so far are the “first but probably not the last” GM will face in Texas courts, they said.

“Transfer of these lawsuits and any future ‘tag-along’ cases to a single pretrial court will eliminate duplicative discovery, avoid conflicting pretrial rulings, conserve judicial resources, be more convenient for the parties and witnesses and otherwise promote a more just and efficient conduct of this litigation,” the lawyers said. If they aren’t combined, GM said, “there will remain multiple lawsuits, in multiple courts of the state, involving similar parties and issues.”

U.S. companies make such arguments when they seek to combine similar suits into one. GM cited efficiency in its bid to consolidate litigation in federal courts over economic injuries tied to more than 2.59 million U.S. vehicles recalled for faulty ignition switches.

Texans’ injuries

The cases in Tuesday’s request for consolidation and delay involve claims of physical injuries or wrongful deaths to Texans. GM, while contesting claims for the loss in value of recalled cars, has said it accepts responsibility for accident victims, no matter when the cars were made or when the accidents occurred.

One suit was filed by a Lufkin woman who lost both legs and broke her spine when the Pontiac Solstice she was driving suddenly switched off, skidded off the road and hit a tree about two months before the vehicle was recalled for ignition switch defects, according to court papers.

Another involves a Corpus Christi woman who said she suffered “severe and permanent spinal injuries” when the Chevy Cobalt she was driving stalled, causing a collision with another car 17 days before GM issued the ignition-switch recall in February.



The state high court is reviewing the request and told the customers to answer GM by June 9.

Separately, a panel of judges in Chicago will decide this month whether to combine lawsuits against GM over claims for compensation for recalled cars’ loss in value.

Moving to combine the injury suits, the carmaker said the U.S. court system has such panels to avoid having multiple judges all handling similar suits against a defendant.

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