GM appears to have completed a record-short escape from bankruptcy protection Thursday, after an order issued by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Gerber (U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York), which approved the sale of most of GM’s assets to a new company, went into effect. The order, delayed four days to allow time for appeals, became effective despite a last-minute appeal from plaintiffs in an Arizona product liability case against GM involving a Chevrolet Malibu (an issue I have previously discussed here). Although objections to the sale were filed, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan denied a request by a committee of some objectors to delay Judge Gerber’s order.  GM spokeswoman Julie Gibson said Judge Gerber’s order allowing the sale became effective at 12 p.m. EDT on Thursday. GM lawyers are working on paperwork to close the sale as quickly as possible, after which GM would formally leave bankruptcy protection.  GM Chief Executive Fritz Henderson is scheduled to give a press conference today at 9 a.m. EDT to discuss the sale.Once the world’s largest and most powerful automaker, GM will become a leaner and greener company, cleansed of debts and burdensome contracts that nearly dragged it into liquidation.  But it faces brutal international competition and the worst auto sales market in more than 25 years.  John Pottow, a University of Michigan Law School professor who specializes in bankruptcy, has told the Associated Press that opponents had little legal recourse to block the sale because their issues were shot down by higher courts in Chrysler’s bankruptcy case.  ‘It’s done,’ Pottow said. ‘I knew they were dead as soon as the Chrysler case was decided.’ (I have previously discussed the objections that could have delayed Chrysler’s emergence from Chapter 11 here).  He expects GM to close the deal and emerge from bankruptcy on Thursday in 39 days, a record for a company its size, he said.  However, GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson said he could not give a time frame for when the sale will close.For a more detailed discussion of Chapter 11 proceedings in general, see my previous blog entries on this site.

-Drew Broaddus