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MOUNT CLEMENS -- A 20-year employee is suing General Motors Corp. under the Whistleblowers' Protection Act, claiming he was blackballed by the company after he threatened to report vehicle safety defects to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Courtland T. Kelley, 40, of Owosso said in the lawsuit that as manager of an internal auditing program to test vehicle safety, he discovered problems with GM vehicles' fuel-line systems in plants throughout North America.
Kelley said in papers filed in Macomb Circuit Court that he believes the fuel-line problems were product defects that could cause cars to spew out fuel and kill or injure drivers, passengers and pedestrians.
His attorney, Rose Goff, said Kelley has a goal by taking on GM: "His primary objective (with the lawsuit) is to get defective vehicles off the road and protect public safety."
The problems he found in the two years he held the auditing assignment were with safety fasteners, or connectors, such as nuts and bolts, Goff said.
Kelley said he repeatedly notified higher management of the problem but was ignored.
GM spokesman Gerry Holmes said Friday the company had not been notified of the lawsuit yet and had no comment on it.
"We have not seen the lawsuit," Holmes said. "It's our policy not to comment without seeing the allegations."
Automakers are required by law to report problems to the safety administration. Legal punishment awaits any automaker that hides safety defect information from the agency, NHTSA spokeswoman Liz Neblett said.
Kelley reported his findings to the safety administration in December, Goff said. Neblett said Friday it's unclear right now whether the agency will investigate.
According to the lawsuit, Kelley was demoted Jan. 2, 2002. His auditing program was discontinued, he contends in the lawsuit, because he had threatened to contact the federal agency about the defects.
Kelley remains employed by General Motors at the GM Tech Center in Warren but does not have a title or permanent job assignment. He said he has been denied access to internal computer files, such as the ones he helped create that describe the safety concerns.
His job had been to check for minor shakes and rattles in new car models. The audit team he supervised would drive about 1,000 vehicles a month over test tracks at 30 plants.
He had a staff of six executives who reported to him on the GM Global Delivery Survey team, and they collectively were responsible for supervising hundreds of other GM employees at plants, Goff said.
The findings of the audit have been sealed by a judge in Georgia until a separate lawsuit against GM concludes. That case was filed by William McAleer, Kelley's former boss, who Goff said also was blackballed by the automaker for trying to report the findings.
McAleer of Georgia designed the audit program. He was removed from the audit in December 1998 because he protested the automaker's alleged inaction in correcting safety defects the audit found, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit was filed Thursday under the Michigan Whistleblowers' Protection Act, which is designed to give employees legal protection from reporting unethical or illegal practices of their employer. It was assigned to Macomb Circuit Judge Mary A. Chrzanowski. No court date has been set.
Last June, Kelley submitted a formal complaint to the company saying that he believed it was breaking the law by not reporting the defects. He threatened to report the problems himself to federal officials.
As a result of his persistence, the lawsuit alleges, Kelley was removed from his auditing position. He was reassigned to various different quality-control jobs in Warren.
After reviewing an organizational chart, "it became apparent (to Kelley) that he had been placed in a group of 'problem employees,' " Goff said in the lawsuit.
The vehicles that Kelley and his team sampled represent less than 1 percent of total number of vehicles GM manufactures monthly, Goff said.
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