Judge Denies New Trial in GM Pickup Truck Case

ATLANTA — A judge Thursday denied General Motors Corp.’s motion for a new trial in a case involving the auto maker’s controversial pickup trucks equipped with sidesaddle gas tanks.

GM sought the motion after learning of two new witnesses.

Separately, GM has tentatively agreed to build a right-hand-drive vehicle in the United States bearing the Toyota name for sale by Toyota Motor Co. in Japan.

GM President and Chief Executive Jack Smith and Toyota President Tatsuro Toyoda “agreed conceptually to pursue an arrangement whereby GM would build a Toyota-badged right-hand-drive vehicle in the United States for sale by Toyota in Japan,” a GM spokesman said.

He said Smith and Toyoda discussed the arrangement last week in a meeting in Washington.

On the motion for a new trial, state court Judge A.L. Thompson also denied GM’s motion to vacate or reduce the $101 million in punitive damages awarded by a jury against GM in February.

The jury awarded the parents of 17-year-old Shannon Moseley a total of $105 million stemming from his death in the 1989 crash of a GM pickup truck.

GM said the new witnesses claimed that Moseley died on impact, while other witnesses had testified that he survived the initial crash, only to die in an ensuing fire.

The decision is the latest in a series of setbacks for the auto giant, which last week was asked by federal safety officials to recall about 4.7 million of the 1973-87 model pickup trucks.

GM has maintained that the trucks are safe and says it does not believe a recall is necessary.