Glock Settles Negligent Discharge Case With Paralyzed Ex-LAPD Cop

bearingarms.com ^ | May 12, 2016 | Bob Owens

[PROCON]

Sometimes, it’s simply more cost-effective for companies to settle a civil lawsuit with a payoff than it is to pay the crushing legal costs of defending yourself in court. It’s sad that being in the right is utterly irrelevant, but that’s simply the way our sue-happy civil court system in this Republic is regretfully designed to operate.

We’re seeing that play out in California right now, as Glock is settling a case with a former LAPD officer who sued Glock for a negligent discharge shooting that left him paralyzed.

Attorneys for a gun manufacturer and a retired LAPD officer who was paralyzed when his 3-year-old son accidentally fired the officer’s handgun while riding in the family truck told a judge Wednesday a settlement was reached in the ex-lawman’s lawsuit.

The announcement came as Los Angeles Superior Court Judge J. Stephen Czuleger was about to begin the process of selecting a jury for trial of the lawsuit brought in July 2008 by then-Officer Enrique Herrera Chavez and his wife, Leonora Aduna Chavez, against Glock Inc. and the Los Angeles Police Revolver and Athletic Club.

No settlement terms were divulged.

Chavez, now 45, was off duty when he was shot on July 11, 2006, while driving his Ford Ranger near Harbor Boulevard and La Palma Avenue in Anaheim. The former Marine, who joined the LAPD in 1996, was on his way to drop off his son, Collin, with a family member before testifying in a court case.

[Oatka]

The case never made it to court.
Apparently it did; the judge was about ready to select a jury, when he was told of the settlement. It should have been pre-screened and dismissed.

Years ago I was selected for jury duty. Some of us were grumbling about being selected when the DA came in and addressed us.

He thanked us for showing up and said that even just our presence was a benefit to the system. He said that often, just as the case is going to court, one side or the other sees the jury lining up to go in and folds like a card table, their bluff having failed.

I didn't grumble too much after that.