Detroit auto-giant General Motors asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to shield it from lawsuits over faulty ignition switches by reversing a lower court’s decision and keeping in place crucial bankruptcy protections.
GM petitioned the court after a federal appeals court said the automaker’s decision not to reveal ignition switch defects, which resulted in nearly 124 deaths and almost 300 injuries, constituted a violation of consumer rights.
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The automaker in 2014 was forced to issue recalls for 800,000 vehicles in the U.S. after knowing about the faulty switches for a decade. Eventually, GM issued 30 million recalls nationwide. It agreed to pay a total of $2 billion to shareholders, customers and others for the defective switches.
But the lower court’s ruling could set it up for billions of dollars more in potential payouts.
The court’s ruling removed the bankruptcy protections that came with the automaker’s landmark government-brokered restructuring in 2009. The automaker had appealed the lower court decision earlier this year, but to no avail, forcing it to go before the high court.
GM’s Tuesday petition argued that the lower federal appeals court had ruled in error by removing the bankruptcy protections and saying consumer lawsuits could move forward to sue for injuries.
The Supreme Court is not expected to take up the case until next year, if at all. If it doesn’t take up the GM petition, deciding against taking up the lower court’s ruling, then the lower court’s decision would stand.
