Trial lawyers at the Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky law firm represent people who may have been injured or killed by SIG Sauer’s 9mm P320 handgun, which is in use by law enforcement, the public and several militaries including our own.
Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky, which calls itself SMB for short, is one of the nation’s leading law firms. SMB lawyers won $1.2 billion for a Surfside condo collapse, $75 million for a Philadelphia highway worker who was struck by a drunk driver and $101 million for the collapse of the Tropicana garage in 2003, which killed four construction workers and injured 30 more.
So far, hundreds of potential plaintiffs have shown up at one of SMB’s four offices seeking to arrange some type of financial compensation for wounds or wrongs they claim were caused by SIG Sauer’s P320 firearm. The law firm currently has more than 100 plaintiffs for P320 litigation, each one is awaiting their turn, and there are millions of P320s on the market.
Tom Taylor is an executive vice president for SIG Sauer and responsible for global brand development. He’s worked at the firearms firm for more than 10 years. He came to the German-based company after working for Remington, Mossberg and Smith & Wesson, where he led development of the M&P rifle and pistol lines.
Part of Taylor’s new role is to attend lawsuits, specifically those which SMB has filed against his firm. He will be attending lawsuits in January, March and July. Most recently, he sat through George Abraham’s lawsuit against SIG Sauer, which concluded last week in Philadelphia. A new judge awarded Abraham $11 million for a wound he claimed was caused by a defective P320.
“There were a few errors made in the case. It had a new judge, a state judge not a federal one, and we believe she made a number of prejudicial mistakes,” Taylor told the Second Amendment Foundation Tuesday. “George (Abraham) spent eight years in the Army, but he was in field artillery. He never had any handgun training. He bought a 320 but never took a class. He never fired the gun. He stuck it in his pocket to move through a Philly neighborhood while fiddling with his gun. His finger went in between the trigger and he pulled the trigger. He is a very nice guy – a good guy – and we wanted to like him. The jury found he was 35% negligent. The jury ruled that the gun was defective. Our reaction is they got it wrong. They issued an incorrect ruling. Something pulled the trigger. The jury never admitted that something pulled the trigger. We have to help juries understand that when you pull the trigger the gun goes off.”
Court documents say the 9mm round passed through Abraham’s right thigh and exited above his knee, which caused a “permanent injury.”
SIG Sauer’s Response
In Abraham’s case, the gun firm said they “strongly disagree with the verdict in this unintended discharge lawsuit, have already moved for a mistrial and will be appealing the decision on multiple grounds.”
“The jury agreed that Plaintiff’s own negligence contributed to his accident. Plaintiff agreed the trigger on his P320 pistol was pulled fully rearward with at least 7 pounds of force. The P320 pistol is designed to discharge when the trigger is pulled and that is what happened in this case,” Sig-Sauer said in a statement. “Plaintiff ignored numerous safety rules and warnings in handling his gun and had never trained with or fired his gun before the discharge occurred despite having purchased it more than a year and a half before his accident.”
SIG Sauer announced that they believe the jury’s verdict was “unsupported by, and contrary to the evidence presented, and will be filing a motion for a judgment in its favor notwithstanding the verdict and, if denied, will be appealing the decision on multiple grounds.”
“The design of the SIG Sauer P320 model pistol is innovative and safe, with numerous related patents, including several relating to safety mechanisms,” the company announced. “It is among the most tested, proven and successful handguns in recent history, with versions being selected as the official sidearm of the U.S., Canadian, Australian and Danish militaries, among many other military and law enforcement organizations worldwide.”
Still Angry
There are millions of civilian and military versions of SIG Sauer’s handguns, P320s, M17s and M18s, currently in use throughout the world with armed civilians and elite police and military forces. However, there are only about 100 potential victims bringing lawsuits against the German firm.
Taylor is still upset about the Abraham ruling and the process that created it.
- The jury agreed Abraham’s negligence contributed to his accident, he said.
- An expert for the plaintiff admitted that the trigger was pulled, but offered no idea how.
- A SIG Sauer expert reconstructed the shooting and proved that Abraham had the gun partially out of the holster when it fired. The only possible explanation was that Abraham pulled the trigger.
- Most worrisome – Abraham had zero pistol training and had never put a single round through his P320 before the one that went into his leg.
“We were 17 and 0 with guys saying the gun had gone off by itself,” he said. “So, they’ve gone on to something new – it’s a defective gun. With Mr. Abraham, it’s a defective gun even though the jury found that the plaintiff pulled the trigger? He was a nice guy, but we’ve got all these things stacked against us. Our reaction is she (the judge) got it wrong. Something pulled the trigger. They never admitted something pulled the trigger.”
Taylor said the problem is simple to understand but the cure would be difficult to implement.
“We have to find a way to help juries and less educated people understand that trigger discipline and gun safety are the most important things,” he said. “We have to help juries understand that when you pull a trigger the gun goes off.”
Taylor has already decided to become more involved.
“The plaintiff’s attorneys were able to block me from testifying, which is one of my new responsibilities” he said. “From this point forward, I will be the company designee to sit at the table, I’m going to be involved in every case, now that I’m not running marketing and sales every day.”
Takeaways
In court documents, Abraham’s attorneys called the P320 “the most dangerous pistol for its users sold in the United States market.”
This is complete bunk.
The P320 and its military variants are a stellar combination of all that is right about a modern pistol. It doesn’t need a safety, the police officers who rely on the handgun don’t want one. What it needs are safe users, folks who have been trained on fighting with a modern pistol.
SIG Sauer said it best. Those who have argued that their P320 must have an external safety ignore that “many users, including a large number of law enforcement agencies, choose firearms without external safety devices based on their philosophy of use and ignores fundamental rules of firearms safety, which, if adhered to, would have prevented the incidents cited in their complaints.”
George Abraham may get $11 million for shooting himself in the leg. There’s something that’s just not right about that.
This story is courtesy of the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project. Click here for more information on the project or to make a tax-deductible donation to it.
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