Auto airbag maker Continental named in GM recall suit (Reuters) - Plaintiffs' lawyers are seeking to draw Continental Automotive Systems U.S., the maker of airbag systems in recalled General Motors Co (GM.N) vehicles, into litigation over an ignitionswitch defect that has been linked to 13 deaths. A lawsuit filed on Wednesday in federal court in California is the first to name Continental, a subsidiary of German automotive supplier Continental AG (CONG.DE), in a growing wave of litigation over GM's recall, which has so far encompassed 2.6 million vehicles. Continental made airbag systems for the recalled cars, including sensors that determine if and when the airbags go off in an accident, according to the suit.
The case is among dozens of proposed class actions that have been filed by customers accusing GM of concealing its knowledge of the defect for more than a decade, putting plaintiffs at risk of injury and causing them to suffer economic losses on their cars, including lower resale value. If jostled or bumped, the ignition switch can change from the "run" to "accessory" position, shutting off engines and disabling power steering, power brakes and airbags. The California lawsuit says that Continental's system was defective because the airbag system would shut off when the key switched positions, and the combination of alleged defects was "particularly dangerous", the complaint said.
A lawyer for the plaintiffs, Adam Levitt of Grant & Eisenhofer, said that Continental appears to have known about the ignition defect as early as 2005, after it met with GM to investigate a crash involving a 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt.