The Pittsburgh-based law firm Pribanic & Pribanic announced it has reached a confidential settlement with General Motors in a wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf of the family of James E. Yingling III – a Pennsylvania man killed in a November 2013 one-vehicle crash. The case was selected as one of six bellwether trials in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, and it was the third in line to proceed to trial following the company’s extensive recall of defective ignition switches in more than a million Cobalts, Saturns, and other vehicles. The Yingling case was originally filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. According to a recent New York Times article, it was the one in which GM “had the most to lose.” Days before the case was expected to go to trial, General Motors offered a settlement that both Mr. Yingling’s widow, Nadia, and lead attorney Victor Pribanic, found acceptable. “I feel badly we did not get to try this case for all the people in the country who were watching this process, but you have to do the best thing for your client,” Pribanic told the New York Times. General Motors has not commented on the case with Mrs. Yingling and the personal injury law firm of Pribanic & Pribanic. Past media reports indicate that General Motors has spent about $2 billion to settle various legal claims related to the defective ignition switches which included:
- More than 120 death cases
- Payment of fines to the Department of Justice
- Billion-dollar investment into its safety and engineering procedures
- The recall of more than 30 million vehicles because of various defective products