General Motors Co. asked the U.S. Supreme Court to maintain a bankruptcy shield blocking some lawsuits over faulty ignition switches after a lower court ruled the Detroit auto giant’s failure to reveal the safety defect violated consumers’ legal rights, the Wall Street Journal reported today. GM appealed a lower court’s ruling earlier this year that undid a legal shield barring lawsuits stemming from alleged wrongdoing before the automaker’s 2009 government-brokered bankruptcy restructuring. The suits carry billions of dollars in potential claims. In a Supreme Court petition filed late yesterday, GM argued that a federal appeals court erred and upended settled bankruptcy law when ruling the cases could proceed. The Supreme Court isn’t expected to decide until next year whether to hear GM’s case. The lower-court ruling would stand without the Supreme Court’s intervention.
