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GM Again Accused of Hiding Transmission Defects Since 2014

Bloomberg Law

April 18, 2024

General Motors LLC was hit with a new proposed class action alleging it concealed two transmission defects that caused shuddering and poor shift quality in 18 Chevrolet and GMC models.

The complaint filed Wednesday in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan alleges GM knew about the defects in 2014, but actively concealed information about them so customers wouldn’t learn about the problems until their warranty periods elapsed.

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The plaintiffs say that as a result of GM’s active concealment, they didn’t know about the alleged defects until Speerly’s class certification motion. The complaint cited the order’s rebuke of GM’s attempts to keep seal documents that could show the company’s knowledge of the defects.

GM “repeatedly argued in its motions to seal that hundreds of pages of reports produced by GM covering engineering investigations of the transmission problems and compilations of warranty service data were its ‘confidential information,’” Judge David M. Lawson said in the Speerly class certification order. GM’s “determined efforts to maintain the ‘confidentiality’ of the information defies any suggestion that any of the relevant information previously was disclosed by GM or its dealers to any buyers of class vehicles,” Lawson added.

The plaintiffs in this case say GM still hasn’t fully admitted what it knew about the defects and when.

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The plaintiffs are represented by Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, Gordon & Partners PA, Berger Montague PC, Capstone Law APC, The Miller Law Firm PC, Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check LLP, Keller Rohrback LLP, and Pitt McGehee Palmer and Rivers PC.

Read GM Again Accused of Hiding Transmission Defects Since 2014.