Jury asked to award $14.5 million in ignition switch lawsuit against GM

HOUSTON – An attorney on Thursday asked a jury to award a Texas family more than $14.5 million for a 2011 fatal accident that they allege was caused by a faulty ignition switch that has been part of a massive recall by General Motors Co.

Zachary Stevens and his parents had sued GM, claiming an ignition switch in Stevens’ Saturn Sky jostled off, causing him to lose control of his car and hit another vehicle, killing its driver.

The ignition switches can slip out of the on position, causing the cars to stall, knocking out power steering and turning off air bags. GM says it has fixed the problem.

FILE – In this April 1, 2014, file photo, Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, displays a GM ignition switch similar to those linked to 13 deaths and dozens of crashes of General Motors small cars like the Chevy Cobalt, during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. A civil trial starting January 2016 in New York City will test the legal boundaries of hundreds of claims remaining against General Motors over faulty ignition switch

Before jurors began deliberating Thursday afternoon, Josh Davis, one of Stevens’ attorneys, said during closing arguments that the faulty switch shut off all the car’s safety systems, causing Stevens to suffer a skull fracture and traumatic brain injury in the accident.

Davis said GM knew about the ignition switch problem but it “continued to put off a recall and people died because of it, families were hurt.”

Stevens, who was 19 at the time, had been driving westbound on a road northeast of Houston near the town of New Caney when he lost control of his car, according to his attorneys. Stevens’ car hit a guardrail and went into the eastbound lane, where it hit a vehicle driven by Mariano Landaverde, who died at the scene. Landaverde’s family had also been part of the lawsuit but settled out of court with GM.

Mike Brock, an attorney for GM, said Stevens’ reckless driving on a rain-slick road caused the accident. Witnesses testified Stevens illegally tried passing cars on the road’s right shoulder and that data from the car’s black box device showed he was travelling around 70 mph on a road with a speed limit of 55, Brock said.

“This accident has nothing to do with an ignition switch,” Brock said. “An ignition switch did not cause (Stevens) to speed up and pass” cars.

Stevens was charged with manslaughter, but a grand jury declined to indict and the charges were eventually dropped after GM began its recall.

In 2014, GM recalled 2.6 million older small cars worldwide to replace the faulty switches. Those included the Saturn Sky, as well as the Chevrolet Cobalt and others. GM also reviewed a backlog of safety problems and ordered a record 84 recalls that year covering more than 30 million vehicles, including 27 million in the U.S.

In September, GM announced it had settled 1,385 death and injury cases for $275 million and a class-action shareholders’ lawsuit for $300 million.

The company paid nearly $600 million to settle 399 claims made to a fund it established. Those claims covered 124 deaths and 275 injuries. GM’s fund rejected more than 90 per cent of the 4,343 claims it received, according to figures the company released in December.

Juan A. Lozano – THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

GM won two other ignition cases that were tried earlier this year.

These have been part of a series of bellwether trials that are testing the legal boundaries of hundreds of claims remaining against GM.