Freedom Arms loses really dumb lawsuit

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From the link....

While riding, Taylor was carrying the Freedom Arms .454 caliber revolver in a holster on his right thigh. The complaint said Taylor was wearing a heavy leather coat and returned to his camping trailer when it started to rain.

The complaint said while Taylor was taking off his coat in the trailer, a part of the coat caught the hammer of the gun, causing it to discharge a bullet into his lower right leg. "It blew a 5- by 8-inch hole out of the front side of his leg," Spence said.
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How is this the manufacturers fault?
 
And have we seen all the evidence before we make judgements?

Hey wait the jury did.

Caveat: I'm not one for nannyistic machinery handling but hey its tort law...you uinderstand the philosophy of that dont ya?

Wildinprussiatheynevereat....Alaska
 
The Jury did find that 50% of the negligence was due to the operator....

There can alaways be an appeal....
 
Oh yeah. Juries ALWAYS have their **** together...
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More so than net second guessers who dont hear the evidence in person.:D

But they make mistakes and net second guessers can be right. Even the blind pig finds the truffle:D

WildtheangelofmonsAlaska
 
Maybe they should require an IQ test before selling their firearms, and if the buyer can't make it into double digits, send them home unarmed.
 
Maybe they should require an IQ test before selling their firearms, and if the buyer can't make it into double digits, send them home unarmed.
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Actually tort law works on the average, reasonable man standard...

So that being the case, and with such things as warnings on lawn mower chutes, are we all not idiots in the eyse of the law? :)

WildhaveabannanaAlaska
 
Before we tear into the jury we really need some more information... Freedom Arms guns are made to be carried in rough places, hunting and such. I think the company should put some thought into assuring that the only way a person can get hurt with one is if they go violating the 4 rules.

If I follow the four rules I expect the firearm manufacutrer to have made a gun that won't go off unless something pulls the trigger.

This may have been a justified suit.
 
Smart Lawyers are experts at jury picking and rejecting, so are prosecuting attorneys but tort lawyers are the cream of the crop depending if you are being sued or doing the sueing...........Stack the deck....Get it?????
 
We're stuck with juries until someone comes up with a better way of doing it. The ones I've served on generally made the right call but we also found out a lot of pertinent info afterwards that could have made a difference.
 
How is this the manufacturers fault?
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I have heard that the particular model of Freedom Arms he was firing did not have a half-cock notch. The hammer was partially pulled back when he opened his coat, but was not pulled back all the way. They are alledging it caught on the coat somehow and the hammer was partially cocked.

Then the hammer fell forward, and since there was no half cock, it hit the cartridge with enough force to fire.

If this is the case, I would bet that the argument was that since there was no half-cock, the weapon was poorly designed, and therefore contributed to the discharge.

I do not know why FA would have designed it without a half cock notch. Looks like their engineers (and lawyers) would have realized that was going to be a problem.
 
The ones I've served on generally made the right call but we also found out a lot of pertinent info afterwards that could have made a difference.
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Gol dang rules of evidence! :D

WildpirateprenticeAlaska
 
Yep, and if I was in his shoes I'd be right happy about them rules. :p I have mixed feeling about courts. Being the plaintiff all the time, everything about it seems unfair. Every law written in effect aids and abetts criminals and deadbeats at the expense of people who keep their nose clean.
 
The lead attorney for the plaintif is Kent Spence......does that ring a bell? His father is the famed trial lawyer Gerry Spence who has made a fortune suing businesses and corporations. Here's a list from their web site. From the looks of it, Freedom Arms got off cheap compared to some the Spence Firms other victims.

http://www.spencelawyers.com/

GerrySpence.jpg

p_kspence.jpg

Spence first gained national recognition when he received a $10,500,000 verdict against Kerr-McGee in the Karen Silkwood case on behalf of her children. Later he earned such verdicts as $26,535,000 against Penthouse for Miss Wyoming and successfully defended Ed Cantrell in the famous Rock Springs, Wyoming murder case. Spence received a $52,000,000 verdict against McDonald's Corporation, the fast-food chain, on behalf of a small, bankrupt, family-owned ice cream company for McDonald's breach of an oral contract. A Utah medical malpractice verdict of over $4,000,000 established a new standard for nursing care in that state. In 1990 he won acquittal for Imelda Marcos on multiple charges after a three and one-half month trial in New York City. In 1992, he received a record-breaking $15,000,000 verdict for emotional damages incurred by his quadriplegic client because a major insurance company refused to pay the $50,000 policy more than twenty years earlier. Two weeks later he added $18,500,000 in punitive damages to the award. In 1993, Spence successfully defended Randy Weaver on murder, assault, conspiracy, and gun charges in the famous Idaho federal standoff case. He has not lost a jury trial since 1969, and he has never lost a criminal case.
 
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Ok, so the lawyer is a known shark, but he did get Randy Weaver off.

But does anyone know the details of the case, in particular regarding the half cock issue?
 
Guys like him all fight over insurance companies money and they're the biggest thieves of all so it's hard to sympathize.
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Somehow alleging Insurance Companies are victims is like trying to feel sorry for Adolf because he only had one cojone.:D

The tort system needs to be reformed. Simplistic viewpoints wont do that.

WildProverbsforParanoidsAlaska
 
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