Posted on 12/08/2004 2:14:16 PM PST by TERMINATTOR
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- An attorney for the widow of a middle school teacher gunned down by a student argued before an appellate court Tuesday that the gun distributor was negligent in selling the cheap weapon and should be held liable.
Attorney Edna Caruso said federal officials told Valor Corp. for years that its .25-caliber Raven handgun was frequently used in crimes and that the company had a legal responsibility to make the weapons safer.
"Here we have a distributor that is known to distribute crime guns. It's been warned for years and years and years," Caruso said. "It says, 'I don't care because it's legal.' Well, just because something's legal doesn't mean it's not negligent.
Attorneys for Valor said the company cannot be considered negligent if someone uses the gun for a crime. They argue that teenager Nathaniel Brazill, who killed Barry Grunow (pictured, right) outside his Lake Worth Middle School classroom in May 2000, is to blame, along with family friend Elmore McCray, who stored the unlocked and loaded gun in a drawer, where Brazill found it.
Jurors in the November 2002 trial in the case largely spared Valor Corp. from blame. Grunow's attorneys asked for a $75 million judgment against the company, but jurors ordered the company to pay only $1.2 million to Pam Grunow and her two young children. A judge then threw out that verdict, and Pam Grunow appealed to the 4th District Court of Appeal.
Judge Mark E. Polen questioned whether Valor had a legal duty to protect society from the weapons it distributed. He said while he did not disagree "philosophically" with Grunow's claims, the issues might better be decided by the Legislature, not the courts.
"There was no evidence in this case that Valor was setting up little stands on street corners in dangerous neighborhoods. They were selling this gun to licensed dealers. Like any firearm, or any weapon, knife, billy club, whatever, Chinese stars, they can fall into the hands of criminals," Polen said. "Is that manufacturer or distributor liable to third-parties that were injured?"
But Judge Robert M. Gross quoted an earlier Florida Supreme Court ruling on another case: "Where a defendant's conduct creates a foreseeable zone of risk, the law generally will recognize a duty to either lessen the risk or see that sufficient precautions are taken to protect others from the harm the risk poses."
"The plaintiff argues that your client created a foreseeable zone of risk," Gross said to Valor attorney Tom Warner. "Then why isn't a duty created?"
Warner told the three-judge panel that the jury agreed the gun was not defective and not unreasonably dangerous. He said Valor can't be blamed for a criminal act that happened 12 years after the gun was sold.
Grunow's lawsuit against Valor was the first brought against the firearms industry to target the absence of a gun lock and the overall design of a cheap, easily concealable weapon known on the streets as a "Saturday Night Special." At the time, gun safety advocates said the verdict could force the industry to make safer guns.
Grunow, who made no comment on Tuesday, has said she wanted a large verdict to call attention to the dangerous weapons and their frequent use in crimes. Her attorneys are hoping the appeals court will reinstate more than the original $1.2 million verdict.
In the case, jurors said Grunow deserved $24 million but they also held Valor only 5 percent responsible in the shooting death, meaning she would have collected only a small fraction of the sum.
Jurors assigned half of the blame to McCray, and another 45 percent of the blame to the School Board for allowing Brazill to bring a weapon that he hid in his pocket onto campus. 
The School Board, McCray, and the pawn shop where he bought the gun settled with Grunow for a total of about $820,000.
Brazill (pictured, left), now 18, was sentenced to 28 years for killing his teacher. He said he pointed the handgun at Grunow to scare him and never intended to pull the trigger. He stole the gun from McCray after being sent home on the last day of school for throwing water balloons. He returned to campus to say goodbye to two girls and became angry when Grunow wouldn't let him inside his classroom.
The appeals court could take months to decide the case.
I have an idea for a safer gun!
Lets require all gun makers to make guns that don't fire!
Wait, bad guys could still use them to bang people over the head with...
I've got it! Nerf guns that don't shoot anything..
Yeah, that's the ticket!
Problem solved. Next?
Blame the gun mfgr, blame the teacher, blame the friend, blame the security, blame the school, blame everybody else...
But the criminal responsable.
Because the plaintiff's argument is false! Valor created no forseeable zone of risk by manufacturing and selling firearms wholesale in accordance with State and Federal laws. Were Valor to be held liable, the courts would be filled the next day with suits against Ford, GM, Toyota, DaimlerChrysler, etc., for creating risk by manufacturing and selling automobiles.
As usual, this is an attempt to get to deep pockets, as well as a politically motivated attempt to bankrupt and run out of business a firearms manufacturer.
Better yet, sue the company that mined the ore that became the steel in the gun. The mining company should have known that their product would be used in making deadly firearms and had an obligation not to let it happen.
It's their responsibility to make it safer and less slippery.
A non-slip gel form would be a good start... but if it gets stuck up my nose the next time I choke while reading about a frivolous lawsuit case, I'll see them in court...
Zone of Risk, is right next to the twilight zone.
Oh sure!...don't blame the kid, blame the gun...nice try you scumbag!
Title of article should read, "Attorneys Want Anyone but Shooter Held Responsible In Florida Teacher Shooting
The boy AND his parents too.
sorry....scumbag Lawyers.......
Okay, these people need to take a deep breath and repeat after me,
"Guns don't kill people, people kill people." A gun is just a tool...imo, if this widow wants justice, maybe she ought to take a closer look at this kids' parents. They carry more responsibilty for their child's behavior. The company carries ZERO.
Last time I checked, though, the government wasn't real successful at locking up parent's for their children's crimes.
*Ducking from the hail of flames and insults to ensue*
My hope is that mucho money is spent by plaintiff's counsel, that they lose big time and have to pay the defendants' legal fees and costs. This one is much worse than the suit against Bushmaster.
I blame Benjamin Franklin and his electricity experiments for computer crimes committed using electricity...
...sure...works for me.
I won't flame you. I think any caliber larger than .22 (and if that's all you have at the moment of need, it is much better than nothing) when used at point-blank (or near point blank) range is going to do the job. I own several pistols chambered in .40 S and W and a Glock 17 in 9 mm. I just like the idea of a bigger hole in the perp, since I really don't want to have to shoot him more than once. Still, a single round of .40 in the upper torso is going to have a startling and surprising effect on any assorted vermin.
BWAHAHAHA!
I think, personally, that I am going to sue TV manufacturers for making tv's that ruined my eyesight. They get to pay (retroactively, of course) for all the eyeglasses I have worn since the age of 8 and pay for LASIK surgery.
*eyes rolling*
These folks (lawyers, I mean) are so desperate to make a buck they are willing to troll for plaintiffs amongst people more than happy to grind an axe with anything remotely having to do with their loved one's death. Those people need grief counseling, big bucks.
That greedy widow is disgusting. Reminds me of a Michigan reporter whose daughter took drugs off-campus, MAYBE crawled out a window in her dorm, and then sued the University even though he had no case and kept after it until the school settled. Never even bothered with the people who sold his daughter the drugs. And had the nerve the write a book about it and admit it all.
You, my friend, have a gift for understatement. :)
ROTFLMAO! "...when they pry it out of my cold dead... err uh. Never mind."
Too funny!
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