According to Stevens, switch rotation caused him to lose control of the auto, hitting another vehicle and killing the driver.
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GM’s lawyers said they uncovered evidence that Scheuer, his wife and two children actually were kicked out of the house because a real estate agent found Scheuer had faked a $441,430.72 check stub from his federal government retirement account as “proof of funds” to close the sale.
However, Harris Country Judge Robert Schaffer dismissed the car-manufacturing company’s attempted bid to throw the case mid-trial but will give orders to the jurors that the key presented to them is not the same key used by Zachary Stevens to drive the 2007 Saturn Sky, according to the Detroit Free Press.
GM has repeatedly told jurors the Stevens’ accident was caused by the teenager’s reckless speeding on a rain-slick country road, not by any alleged safety defect in his mother’s vehicle.
“This is not the stuff of John Grisham, but a simple mistake”, he said.
In GM’s initial filing, it claims that Stevens initially said he was driving with just a few items attached to his key, but the key shown to jurors more recently included a few more items like a gym membership vehicle and an Eiffel Tower Souvenir.
GM acknowledged in its multiple recalls of vehicles, including the 2007 Sky, that the problem could be caused by the weight of extra keys or other objects attached to the vehicle’s key chain.
The trial, underway in Houston, is the second GM ignition case that threatened to blow up midway on accusations that a witness lied.
Family members testified it was the same key the father pulled from their wrecked Saturn in 2011 and then allegedly misplaced it until a few weeks ago. This time, however, it isn’t for another death or another new lawsuit, but because it is trying to get the judge to dismiss the first civil case being brought against it in Texas over the ignition switch issue.
But GM lawyers says the multiple-key keychain the Stevens’ lawyer tried to introduce as evidence was not used by Zach Stevens when his auto crashed.
GM won the first two ignition cases that went to trial earlier this year.
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General Motors recalled almost 2.6 million vehicles with faulty ignition in 2014. A dismissal will likely only mean that Stevens won’t get to cash a big check; manslaughter charges were dropped after GM announced the recall in 2014. The Stevens family is seeking compensation from GM for the cost of Zach’s criminal defense and his lingering traumatic brain injury.
