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A California jury has found a firearms manufacturer partially liable

Strange article. No amount of award listed. No manufacturer listed. Doesn't tell the model of the gun. Heck, doesn't even tell us if it was a revolver or semi-automatic pistol. I assume it was a semi-auto but it doesn't tell us if a bullet was in the chamber while Babysitter Man was trying to unload it while pointing it at the boy's head (obviously, there was no other place to point it).

This reporting is just plain shoddy.

Gun manufacturers are as liable as anyone else for product manufacture lawsuits. The new law is unlikely to protect them from a defective design lawsuit.

But I have reconsidered my earlier remarks too. If the manufacturer had forced you to put the safety on 'safe' in order to reload/unload/change clips, then it would have been unsuitable for police and (I think) some target shooting competitions.

Actually, as I've thought about it, it seems to me that the family should only have a case against the babysitter. Judging by the article, he was forced to put the safety on 'fire' to unload it so there is no way he could not have known that the gun was prepared to fire. So I've decided they have no case against the manufacturer at all unless the safety on/off was somehow inadequately marked for clarity.

I'd like to hear more from you and FR's other legal eagles on the liability issues when we get an adequate report on the case's specifics.

I found the "original (?)" article in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Jury awards $51 million to boy in accidental shooting; legislation could affect outcome

Thursday, May 8, 2003

(05-08) 06:38 PDT OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) --

A jury awarded $51 million in damages to boy who was accidentally shot and paralyzed in 1994, but the verdict may not stand because of pending legislation that would protect gun manufacturers from liability.

The jury awarded damages to Brandon Maxfield on Wednesday, two weeks after concluding that gun maker Bryco Arms was partially liable when he was shot in the jaw with a .38-caliber handgun that a family friend was trying to unload.

But it is unclear whether the verdict will survive. The U.S. House of Representatives has already passed a bill to protect gun makers and distributors from being sued for damages; the bill is now awaiting Senate action.

Two weeks ago, the jury found Bryco 10 percent liable after concluding the company manufactured a defective firearm. To unload the weapon, a user must first unlock the trigger lock -- a dangerous and flawed system, according to the boy's attorney, Richard Ruggieri. Calls to Bryco went unanswered.

The gun's distributors were found 30 percent liable.

The jury said one-third of blame for the shooting falls on Maxfield's parents for leaving a loaded weapon in their Willits home. Jurors also found the shooter, family friend William Moreford, 20 percent liable.

If the award survives, each party may have to pay its percentage of the liability.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2003/05/08/national0938EDT0549.DTL