General Motors CEO Mary Barra is among around 40 current and former GM executives and employees who will be deposed by lawyers suing the automaker over its delayed recall of 2.59m cars linked to at least 67 deaths, a US media report said.
Bob Hilliard, a Texas lawyer who is one of three lead attorneys for class action personal injury and death lawsuits against GM, told the Detroit News the depositions of GM executives would begin on 6 May with Alicia Boler-Davis, senior vice president of global connected customer experience. The depositions will continue for five months and conclude with Barra’s on 8 October.
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In the US, a deposition is the sworn, out of court oral questioning and testimony of a witness that is reduced to writing for later use in court or for discovery purposes, the paper said.
The Detroit News said the depositions are connected to a group of consolidated lawsuits that involve injuries and deaths for crashes tied to the ignition switch defect that occurred after GM emerged from bankruptcy in 2009; some cases allege that the defect and numerous GM recalls last year have reduced the value of their cars. The first case in the consolidated group is set for trial in January.
The paper said the depositions would include many of the 15 former lawyers and executives fired by Barra last year – the dismissals came after an internal GM investigation found patterns of incompetence but no cover up into why it took GM more than a decade to recall older Chevrolet Cobalts and other cars for defective ignition switches.
“This will be the first time GM employees will be made to answer difficult questions under oath about the specific details of the documents and their role in these deaths and injuries,”” Hilliard said in a statement cited by the Detroit newspaper which noted that Barra actually testified under oath four times before congressional committees probing the ignition switch debacle.
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By GlobalDataGM spokesman Jim Cain confirmed to the Detroit News the company has agreed to the depositions. The ground rules, including how long they last, were negotiated between both sides and will be approved by the judge overseeing the case.
Hilliard, in an email to the paper, said GM’s former general counsel Michael Millikin and fired ignition switch engineer Ray DeGiorgio would be deposed but dates for those depositions have not been finalised.
Hilliard reportedly said documents turned over by GM raise questions about the internal report that it commissioned and he alleges GM is involved in a cover up. The internal report suggested a culture of “incompetence and neglect” was to blame – not a purposeful effort over years to hide the deadly defect.
“Given the damning documents we have uncovered throughout the course of this litigation, the dance floor is very, very small and no GM witness will be able to shuffle around the truth,” Hilliard reportedly wrote in an email.
“I expect we will find out how high up this cover-up goes.”
The latest report from Kenneth Feinberg, a specialist claims lawyer GM hired to administer its compensation programme, says the automaker has now authorised 180 pay-outs – 67 in connection with deaths in GM cars and 113 for injury cases.
