Hartline Dacus Barger Dreyer (HDBD) helped score a big win for GM in the first bellwether trial of the GM Ignition Switch MDL on January 21 when Plaintiff voluntarily dismissed his case with prejudice after the close of Plaintiff's case-in-chief.
HDBD partners and IADC members Kyle Dreyer and Wendy May, along with Richard Godfrey, Mike Brock, and Barry Fields from Kirkland and Ellis, represented GM in the first bellwether trial. After the close of Plaintiff's case, Federal Judge Jesse Furman found Plaintiff had more likely than not committed fraud on the Court during his testimony regarding alleged damages.
In questioning the need for the case to continue, Judge Furman also recognized GM's technical evidence related to the unlikely probability of ignition switch rotation with a single key, as Plaintiff acknowledged he was using.
Finally, Judge Furman noted Plaintiff's indisputable and serious pre-existing injuries and recognized evidence of Plaintiff’s fraud impaired Plaintiff's credibility, which served as the sole basis for the treating physician's attributing injury to Plaintiff's motor vehicle accident.
On January 21, in light of the evidence presented by GM, Plaintiff voluntarily dismissed his case with prejudice after two weeks of trial. GM agreed to the dismissal but without any compensation to Plaintiff.
HDBD has represented GM for decades in products liability, commercial and intellectual property matters. Partners Kyle Dreyer, Wendy May, Jeff Cox, Deron Wade, Giovanna Bingham, Pryce Tucker, Larry Grayson, Richard Crews and Tom Jacks were retained in the MDL litigation as well as numerous related state court cases to build GM's technical defense and to assist as trial counsel.
Hartline Dacus Barger Dreyer LLP is a Texas-based law firm specializing in civil litigation and trials, with offices in Dallas, Corpus Christi and Houston. The firm’s attorneys pride themselves on providing uncompromising excellence to their clients in a variety of areas, including products liability, commercial litigation, class action and multidistrict litigation, intellectual property, personal-injury defense, premises liability, labor and employment, insurance coverage, healthcare, construction, and dealer/franchise litigation. For more information about HDBD, visit www.hdbdlaw.com.