GM Accuses Plaintiffs of Fabricating Evidence in Ignition Switch Case

General Motors is calling on a judge to discard an ignition switch lawsuit after claiming the plaintiffs fabricated evidence in the trial, reports Reuters. The automaker says the plaintiffs and their lawyers misled the jury about the key of a car involved in a fatal crash in 2011.

GM recalled 2.6 million vehicles in 2014 because too much weight on their key chains can cause the ignition switches to slip out of position. According to plaintiff Zachary Stevens, this problem is what caused him to lose control of the 2007 Saturn Sky he was driving five years ago. After crashing into another vehicle, the driver of that vehicle was killed. During the trial, Stevens and the other plaintiffs, his parents, presented jurors with a key chain containing three rings for items including a gym membership card and an Eiffel Tower decoration.

But GM maintains the key shown in the courtroom doesn’t actually belong to the vehicle. In a filing, the automaker said Stevens had claimed earlier that he was driving with just a few items on his key. The alleged false claims “have hamstrung the search for the truth,” GM said.

If the judge can’t dismiss the case altogether, GM wants jurors to receive instructions to disregard the allegedly false claims made about the key. The lawsuit is the first of about 20 pending ignition switch lawsuits to head to trial in Texas state court. So far, GM has coughed up a total of $2 billion in criminal and civil penalties related to the ignition switch issue.

A judge in Texas recently dismissed another lawsuit against GM from a woman who blamed a car crash on an ignition switch issue, citing a lack of expert testimony to support her allegations. Earlier this year, a judge dismissed the first of federal switch cases set to head to trial. The only one of those to reach a jury involved a 2014 accident in New Orleans, and the ruling deemed GM not liable.

Source: Reuters (1,2)

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