General Motors has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a ruling on its ignition switch saga that allows the automaker to be sued by customers.
Automotive News reports that the court’s decision that GM’s 2009 bankruptcy doesn’t shield it from ignition switch-related lawsuits hasn’t been met well with officials from the conglomerate.
In a petition issued to the court, GM claims that the bankruptcy code allows a purchaser to obtain a debtor’s asserts and to be “free and clear” of its liabilities, essentially meaning GM can’t be hit with customer lawsuits over its deadly ignition switches.
In the petition, GM said “In short, this case presents exceptionally important questions, and the Second Circuit’s answers were exceptionally wrong. The Court should grant review.”
In the court’s original decision not to bar customers from suing the carmaker, it concluded that if it did, it would undermine the consumer’s constitutional rights to due process, as they hadn’t been notified of the defect before GM’s ’09 bankruptcy.
It is reported that since the ignition switch issues came to light, GM has paid approximately $2 billion in criminal and civil penalties and recalled 2.6 million vehicles in the United States.
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