Consumer Law

Another GM/Chrysler ?Bankruptcy Loophole? Update

By Andy Hoffman

As promised, we?re continuing to follow the Chrysler/GM bankruptcies (and in particular, developments involving the ?bankruptcy loopholes? which effectively immunize both companies from lawsuits should defects in the ?old? pre-bankruptcy Chrysler GM/vehicles injure or kill people).  Here are some notable press items from the past few days?

Attorneys General from Connecticut, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Vermont, and West Virginia are standing up for injured consumers, filing objections to the GM bankruptcy last Friday (here, here, here, here).

We hear that other states' AG?s will be coming in to raise similar objections soon.

The Detroit News adds to the ever-growing list of heart wrenching tales about Chrysler/GM defect victims, profiling 20-year-old former athlete, Stevie Beale, who was paralyzed from the waist down due to a faulty seatbelt design in her Pontiac Bonneville.

Lynn LoPucki, a professor and bankruptcy expert at UCLA Law School, who is quoted in the article, said, "They should assume liability for their cars. Instead, they give people a very good reason to not buy their cars?

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Macon Telegraph both tell the tragic story Nell and Jimmie Davis whose Jeep Cherokee flipped over, crushing the (defective) roof of the vehicle, and killing Jimmie just eight days before the couple?s 48th wedding anniversary.  Nell sued Chrysler, but like so many others, her case is unlikely to go anywhere. ?They got all their taxpayer bailout money and now they?re not responsible for anything?? she said.

Full post as published by ThePopTort on June 22, 2009 (boomark / email).