BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (Legal Newsline) - The entirety of a lawsuit alleging a SIG Sauer P320 pistol went off without its owner pulling the trigger and shot him in the thigh has been thrown out by a Kentucky federal judge.
Judge Greg Stivers already ruled on March 20 to grant SIG Sauer's motion for summary judgment after finding plaintiff Stephen Mayes' experts unreliable. Though there was no evidence the gun contained a defect, Stivers did not rule on Mayes' failure-to-warn and consumer protection claims.
Since there can be no defect on which SIG Sauer failed to warn or deceived consumers about, the judge entered final judgment on the remaining two claims after SIG Sauer requested he do so.
"Furthermore, Mayes has not contested SIG Sauer's argument in its current motion," Stivers wrote. "Therefore, Mayes cannot mintain a failure to warn claim, and SIG Sauer is entitled to summary judgment on the matter."
It's at least the second decision for SIG Sauer in the last year, as a New Hampshire federal jury ruled for it in a similar case in July.
https://legalnewsline.com/stories/635175580-gun-maker-says-personal-injury-lawyer-waited-too-long-to-try-to-change-verdict
Lawyer Jeffrey Bagnell brought both cases, as his practice has come to include recruiting clients who say they were shot as a result of a design defect in the P320.
In the Kentucky case, Bagnell alleged Mayes had the gun in a holster on his hip when it discharged, shooting him in the thigh. SIG refuted the expert reports of Timothy Hicks and Peter Villani, an engineer whose experience is primarily in automobiles and an operations officer for the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs Police, respectively.
SIG Sauer said neither did their own testing to support their design defect theories. Though hands-on testing is not an absolute prerequisite, Stivers wrote, opinions amounting to "no more than a hypothesis are not reliable, despite how convincing they may appear."
"Neither of the experts have conducted physical testing on Mayes' pistol specifically, nor any other pistol to support their theory regarding the amount of rollover needed to cause an uncommanded discharge," Stivers wrote.
"They also do not offer any calculations to support their theories. Plainly, both experts opine that a raised surface on the interface between components of the gun could result in an uncommanded discharge in theory.
"But neither Hicks nor Villani offers any evidence suggesting that such an uncommanded discharge occurs generally or that it did in this case."
Without experts required by Kentucky product liability law, Bagnell's case fell apart, resulting in judgment for SIG.
In Connecticut, the company recently argued it should be able to depose an animation company Bagnell worked with to produce computer-generated animation about the alleged defect that Bagnell posted on YouTube.
Bagnell claimed the material sought is protected by the work-product privilege. The two sides apparently came to an agreement during a hearing March 30 regarding what questions can be asked.