The following is a recent Court of Appeal decision, which may be of interest, particularly to some of our police officer clients.
In the case of Chavez v. Glock, Inc. (2012) 2007 Cal. App. 4th 1283, the Second District Court of Appeal in California held that it would be for the jury to determine whether the Glock pistol was safely designed. In the Chavez case, an off-duty police officer was rendered a paraplegic when his three-year-old son accidentally shot him in back with his service weapon which had inadvertently been left holstered in the back of his car within reach of his child who was belted in the jump seat. The child somehow managed to cause the gun to discharge while they were stopped at a red light. The plaintiff challenged the safety of the pistol as it had a light trigger pull yet lacked a safety mechanism to prevent accidental, unknowing or inadvertent discharge.
The Court of Appeal sent the case back to the trial court for a jury to determine whether the gun was defective in design.
This post is published by The Law Offices of Padilla Law Group, LLP, attorneys focusing in Personal Injury, Wrongful Death, and Product Liability matters.