In the race to punish GM for the ignition-switch defect that prompted its recall of 2.6 million cars, some litigants are following their own roads through state courts rather than joining the New York litigation, in which more than 100 lawsuits have been coordinated for pretrial purposes under U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman, the National Law Journal reported today. GM identified many of the state court cases in a July 21 letter to Judge Furman, and acknowledged them in its July 24 quarterly report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, saying: "These cases are in their very early stages. No discovery has yet taken place." The 20 state lawsuits could influence the broader litigation. In a case against Toyota Motor Corp. alleging sudden acceleration brought on by electronic defects had caused a woman's death, for example, a jury in Oklahoma state court awarded $3 million last year. Months later, Toyota began settling hundreds of similar injury and death lawsuits that had languished in a related federal proceeding for three years. Although the GM cases are a long way from trial, some lawyers hope the state courts can give their clients a head start. Since the creation of the multidistrict litigation two months ago, GM has sought to remove as many cases as possible from state to federal court. Most of the cases still in state court have survived these efforts because they named as an additional defendant a local dealership that either sold or repaired the car. Almost all of the cases involve accidents that occurred after 2009, when GM filed for bankruptcy. GM has filed motions in bankruptcy court to bar claims over injuries and deaths that occurred before then. They are pending in Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New York and Texas, and more are expected.
