Reuters reports one of the many lawsuits General Motors faces over its faulty ignition switches likely will be thrown out of a Texas courtroom. The case involves plaintiff Zachary Stevens, who lost control of his 2007 Saturn Sky in 2011 before hitting another car and killing its driver.
In a strange twist, the case may be dismissed because the key in the vehicle at the time of the accident didn’t actually belong to a Saturn Sky. The allegedly non-Saturn key also had various trinkets hanging off of it, which are now thought have been added to help convince jurors that the problem was a run-of-the-mill GM ignition switch failure caused by excessive weight. Stevens must have forgotten that he originally said he didn’t have much attached to his key at the time the accident occurred.
GM challenged the plaintiffs for fabricating evidence and asked the judge to dismiss the case. 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.
According to Reuters, so far GM has already paid out around $2 billion in settlements and penalties because of faulty ignition switches.