HARTFORD, Conn. (Legal Newsline) - A personal injury lawyer in the business of suing gun-maker SIG Sauer is fighting the company's efforts to depose an animation company he worked with.
Sig Sauer, Inc., sued Jeffrey Bagnell last year, asking for an injunction on Bagnell's YouTube videos. The suit says those videos feature computer-generated animation about an alleged defect in the P320 that causes it to fire on its own.
The case says the videos incorrectly depicts the gun's design and make claims about its mechanics that are physically impossible. SIG Sauer now wants to depose someone at High Impact, Inc., the Colorado firm that created the animation, about its communications with Bagnell during their creation.
Bagnell says the material sought by SIG Sauer is protected by the work-product privilege.
"Work product can be defined as the result of an attorney's activities when those activities have been conducted with a view to pending or anticipated litigation," the motion to quash filed March 15 in Connecticut federal court says, citing a 1994 Connecticut ruling.
A search of federal court records shows Bagnell with nine lawsuits against SIG Sauer, and his website contains a testimonial from one of his gun clients.
Last year, a New Hampshire federal jury ruled against one of his plaintiffs after he claimed the P320 pistol discharged on its own and shot him in the leg.
As for the animation debate, Bagnell says he was "extensively involved in all aspects" of its creation, so the work-product privilege applies.
"Sig already has the animation at issue and all computer tomography images and photographs underlying its creation; it therefore cannot show a substantial need to depose High Impact about communications with the Bagnell parties about the animation or how it was created," the motion says.