The refusal by a Georgia judge to dismiss a wrongful death lawsuit against General Motors means that discovery can proceed in the case of a 29-year-old woman who died as a result of the deadly ignition switch that led the company to recall 2.6 million of its cars.
On Saturday the judge ordered the automaker to start turning over documents by September 26 to lawyers for Kenneth and Mary Melton, whose daughter Brooke died in 2010 after the ignition switch on her 2010 Chevrolet Cobalt failed.
The Meltons settled their lawsuit for $5 million last year but in May announced that they would return the money, charging that the company fraudulently hid information.
Lance Cooper, a lawyer for the Meltons, told the Times that he wants to depose Michael Millikin, GM’s general counsel, as well as other employees of both GM and Delphi, which manufactured the ignition switch.
GM expressed disappointment in the court’s ruling. “We continue to believe that the parties reached a good-faith settlement last year,” spokesman Greg Martin told the Times.
After the family renounced the settlement and sued GM again, the company had the case removed to federal court in an attempt to combine the lawsuit with other litigation that it could stay under an order that governs GM’s 2009 bankruptcy.
The Meltons won an important procedural victory in July, when a federal judge remanded the case to the state court in Cobb County, just north of Atlanta.