General Motors wants to delay a federal judge in San Francisco from ruling on a class-action case until a bankruptcy judge in New York decides whether the company is shielded from all product liability claims tied to crashes or defects before it exited bankruptcy in July 2009, the Detroit Free Press reported today. It was believed to be the first time since the recall of 2.6 million cars began in February that GM acknowledged it would ask a federal bankruptcy judge to protect it from claims. In the filing Friday, the company said that it would make the request based on protections given “New GM” in 2009. GM went through a bankruptcy reorganization funded by U.S. taxpayers five years ago that left most of its product liability with the old company, which mainly consisted of shuttered factories, some of which have since been sold. GM’s critics have argued that it should bear responsibility for a defect linked to 13 deaths and 32 crashes in North America.
http://www.freep.com/article/20140415/BUSINESS01/304150107/general-moto…
For further analysis, make sure to attend the "Large Complex Trusts: A General Motors Case Study" panel at ABI's Annual Spring Meeting. This panel will discuss the General Motors bankruptcy case with an in-depth discussion about the issuance of public units in a major bankruptcy. The session will also include the challenges addressed by the trust such as liability claims. For more information or to register, please click here: http://www.abiworld.org/ASM14/