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posted by Fnord666 on Monday December 19 2016, @12:57PM   Printer-friendly
from the that's-not-how-reincarnation-works dept.

When a company reorganizes itself through a bankruptcy, is it the same company? And if so, is it liable for alleged wrongdoing committed by the previous version of itself?

These are questions raised by General Motors' efforts to dodge hundreds of lawsuits related to a potentially fatal ignition-switch flaw in millions of its older sedans. After receiving a stinging defeat in a federal appellate court this past summer, the automaker is now making a Hail Mary pass to the U.S. Supreme Court to try to convince judges that it has reincarnated into a seven-year-old car company free of liabilities from its previous life.

With potentially billions of dollars' worth of personal and financial injury claims at stake, the Detroit automaker's lawyers argue that allowing these lawsuits to go through would undermine an important aspect of corporate bankruptcy: giving assurance to the buyers of troubled companies that they aren't also buying a whole bunch of unexpected legal headaches.

But in GM's case there was no outside buyer. It essentially bought itself (with taxpayer money) in the wake of the mortgage-lending crisis that tipped the nation into recession and steered the American auto industry into a ditch.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 20 2016, @02:34AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 20 2016, @02:34AM (#443504)

    Elliott files for Chapter 11 after blowing all his money on a l33t new server system, which then gets pwn3d by his creditors.

    As a result of this he finds himself in debtor's prison while continuing to battle with the demons of his past choices. :)