Oregon: "Gun Maker Found Liable in Shooting Accident"

[cuchulainn]

from the New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/23/n...00&en=4f128a9393063340&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

Gun Maker Found Liable in Shooting Accident

By FOX BUTTERFIELD


An Oakland jury has found a California gun maker, its designer and its main distributor partly liable in an accidental shooting that left a 7-year-old boy a quadriplegic.

The jury's verdict, on Monday in Alameda County Superior Court, is considered highly unusual because gun manufacturers have successfully argued for years that guns are legal products and that when they injure or kill someone they are performing exactly as intended.

The jury found that Bryco Arms, the maker of the .38-caliber semiautomatic used in the shooting; Bruce Jennings, the gun's designer and the company's founder; and the company's main distributor, B. L. Jennings Inc. 35 percent liable for the injury to the boy, Brandon Maxfield, who was shot in the chin by a baby sitter in 1994.

In addition, the jury found two other gun distributors that shipped the gun and the pawnshop in Willits, Calif., where it was bought 13 percent liable.

The jury assessed the remaining responsibility to Larry Moreford, the 20-year-old baby sitter who accidentally pulled the trigger while trying to unload the gun, and to Brandon Maxfield's parents, who had bought it.

The jury began a separate phase of the trial yesterday to determine the amount of damages, said Victoria Ni, a staff lawyer with Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, a public interest law firm that had been advising Brandon, who is now 16 and must use a wheelchair.

Whatever damages the jury determines, Ms. Ni said, could be nullified by a bill now in Congress that would grant the gun industry nearly complete immunity against such lawsuits. The bill, which passed the House earlier this month, is expected to be taken up in the Senate after the Easter recess. The bill, sponsored by the National Rifle Association and the gun industry, has 52 co-sponsors in the Senate, enough to pass.

In Brandon's case, Ms. Ni said, the crucial issue was that the .38-caliber Bryco semiautomatic was designed in such a way that it could be unloaded only when the safety was turned to the "off" position.

"You have to disengage the safety and put the gun in a dangerous position to unload it," Ms. Ni said. "That is a defect in the design."

During testimony, it was shown that Mr. Jennings had changed the design of the gun to make it operate that way.

Bryco Arms makes what are commonly referred to as Saturday night specials, inexpensive handguns with features that would put them on a list of guns prohibited from being imported to the United States. Mike Hewitt, the lawyer for Bryco and Mr. Jennings, did not return calls seeking comment.

Dennis Henigan, the legal director of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a gun control advocacy group, said the jury's finding exposed dangers in the design of the gun that a responsible manufacturer should have foreseen, as could happen with other consumer products.

At the time of the shooting, according to testimony, Mr. Moreford was baby-sitting for Brandon when they heard a fight outside the house. A cousin of Brandon, who was also in the house, then pulled out a gun that belonged to Brandon's parents. Mr. Moreford took it away and tried to unload the gun, but to do so he had to turn off the safety.

In the process, he accidentally pulled the trigger and shot Brandon, who was across the room.

Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

 

[Henry Bowman]

Looks like Mr. Moreford violated Rules 2 and 3. End of story.

 

[spacemanspiff]

whats next? class action suits against glock for not having a manual safety? 1911 makers for not having a decocking mechanism?

 

[GSB]

Sooo, the manufacturer is at fault because the guy pulled the trigger. There was no defect, the guy just pulled the trigger. And the manufacturer is to blame. Wow. Hope this one gets overturned.

 

[Ol' Badger]

I want to sue Buck, because my hand slipped and I was cut. Neven thou the knife preformed like it was suppose to! What a stupid ruling. What is next for the people to swallow???:banghead:

 

[Biff]

So Jennings designe the gun so that you must disengage the safety to unload it? Does this mean we will be seeing legislation in California declaring 1911's and Browning Hi-Powers unsafe and therefore illegal?

 

[P95Carry]

accidentally pulled the trigger

substitute ''NEGLIGENTLY'' ....... sheesh ...... how many times!!??

And if he had only remembered ''safe direction'' it would not and could not have harmed anyone.

These cases get me real riled up ...... :banghead: :banghead:

 

[rock jock]

he accidentally pulled the trigger and shot Brandon

So then the gun operated as intended, correct?

 

[Standing Wolf]

What a travesty of justice!

 

[cuchulainn]

from the San Francisco Chronicle

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/05/08/MN209101.DTL

Jury blames gunmaker, awards Alameda County teen $50 million

A boy left paralyzed nine years ago in an accidental shooting was awarded $50.9 million Wednesday by an Alameda County jury that took the unusual step of holding the gunmaker largely responsible for the tragedy.

Brandon Maxfield, now 16, of Willits, has been a quadriplegic since being shot in the jaw by a baby-sitter who was trying to unload the Bryco/Jennings pistol.

Richard Ruggieri, Brandon's attorney, said his client's family was "pleased but reserved" with the verdict.

It could be a long time before Brandon sees any money, Ruggieri said, because the jury still must decide what share of the award each of the defendants must pay.

The money is to compensate Brandon for future medical costs, pain and suffering, loss of wages and other actual damages, Ruggieri said. None of it is meant to be punitive to the defendants -- a distinction Ruggieri feels makes the case stronger and different from awards that are based on sympathy for the victim.

The case is being hailed as important by gun-control advocates because the gun industry historically has escaped legal liability in such cases.

In this case, Ruggieri successfully showed that the semiautomatic pistol -- a cheap model commonly referred to as a Saturday Night Special -- was defective in its design.

"This is one of the first juries ever to hold any gun manufacturer responsible for a flaw in its design," said Victoria Ni, spokeswoman for Trial Lawyers for Public Justice.

"The flaw was that in order to render the gun safe and unloaded, you had to disengage the only safety on the gun and put it in a dangerous condition," she said. "So it's kind of like putting the 'off' button on the bottom of a (power) lawn mower."

Calls to Bryco Arms in the Orange County town of Costa Mesa went unanswered Wednesday. Phone messages left for four defense attorneys were not returned.

Ruggieri said even though he was satisfied with the case's outcome, it was too soon to get overly excited for Brandon's family.


APPEAL LIKELY
First, the case will probably be appealed. Assuming it is upheld, the family will still need to actually collect the money from the defendants. And that may all be for naught, because a bill now wending its way through Congress might render the whole matter moot.

That bill, sponsored by the National Rifle Association and the gun industry,

would wipe out virtually all civil liability for gun manufacturers and distributors. It has passed the House and is expected to clear the Senate.

"We're certainly concerned with it," Ruggieri said. "It would be a human tragedy if something like that would block something like this."

Ruggieri said the bill might not apply to Brandon's case. "But it has enough vague language that it's got to be considered as a danger."

While Ni and other special interest advocates are watching the trial for its larger implications, Ruggieri is not.

'NOT ABOUT 2ND AMENDMENT'

"This trial is not about the Second Amendment or the right to bear arms," he said. "This is just a case about Brandon."

Brandon, who was 7 at the time of the accident, uses a ventilator at night and must undergo a number of operations just to survive, Ruggieri said.

"It's almost as complete an injury as you can get," he said.

Despite spending more than 500 days in the hospital since being shot, Brandon has remained with his class in school.

He is now a high school sophomore with dreams of graduating and studying paleontology at UC-Davis.

"He's an amazing kid," Ruggieri said of the boy, whom the jury saw in court once.

Brandon's life was changed on April 6, 1994, when he and a 12-year-old relative were being watched in their home by a family friend who was temporarily living with them.

The 12-year-old believed that some adult had told him to get the gun out, Ruggieri said.

When he did, the 20-year-old baby-sitter -- Larry William Moreford II -- intervened and took the pistol from the boy.

"He was trying to unload the gun," Ruggieri said. "In order to do that, he had to put it on 'fire.' The gun slipped in his hand and it went off. This was not a 'child playing with a gun' type of situation."

In addition to Bryco Arms and related defendants from the gun industry, the jury held Moreford and Brandon's parents partly liable.

"It's the kind of a tragedy that has many victims," Ruggieri said, "not only the fellow who was holding the gun when it went off, but both of the parents -- neither will ever forgive themselves."

©2003 San Francisco Chronicle

 

[answerguy]

"You have to disengage the safety and put the gun in a dangerous position to unload it," Ms. Ni said. "That is a defect in the design."

So the babysitter HAD to point the gun at the child's chin because of the gun's design?

 

[QuarterBoreGunner]

This is so ridiculous that I don't know where to start.

"You have to disengage the safety and put the gun in a dangerous position to unload it," Ms. Ni said. "That is a defect in the design."

So the Browning Hi Power and the 1911 are defective design? I'm sure the LAPD with their new Kimbers will love to hear that.

Dammit I am so mad.

HE PULLED THE FREAKIN TRIGGER!

Ok....deep breath...