GM accepts responsibility for built vehicles

WASHINGTON: Troubled US automaker GM has accepted to maintain its legal responsibility for vehicles it has built in the past, according to legal documents that appeared on Saturday on the Internet.

In the documents submitted by the company to a bankruptcy court in New York, GM argues the law does not compel it to assume responsibility for cars and trucks sold by the old company.

"Notwithstanding the foregoing, to alleviate certain concerns that have been raised on behalf of consumers as to future products liability claims" the post-bankruptcy GM "will expressly assume all products liability claims arising from accidents or other discrete incidents arising from the operation of GM vehicles ... regardless of when the product was purchased," the documents said.

GM filed for bankruptcy protection in early June and under a rapid restructuring plan, the US government would become the company's principal shareholder with a 60.8 percent stake. Canada would have 11.7 percent. A United Auto Workers trust fund would hold 17.5 percent.

The exit plan, which is set for a hearing June 30, would create a "new GM" that would buy the main assets of the biggest US auto manufacturer.

Sources familiar with the case have said that GM appeared to be on track for an exit from bankruptcy protection under the new scheme by mid-July.