Kmart Is Sued for Wrongful Death
By PATTY HENETZ
Associated Press Writer

SALT LAKE CITY

Not long before his suicide, Ryan Eslinger appeared to be responding to treatment for paranoid schizophrenia. He told his mother he felt like he was waking from a coma. He told his father he loved him.

But on May 23, the 19-year-old committed suicide with a shotgun he'd bought the previous day at Kmart. Eslinger's parents blame the store and they've sued the Troy, Mich.-based retailer for wrongful death saying their 17-year-old clerk should not have sold him the gun.

During opening arguments Wednesday, Kmart attorney Rodney Parker told jurors Ryan Eslinger, though mentally ill, was responsible for his own deliberate act.

But Sandra and Phil Eslinger allege Kmart violated federal gun laws when their sales clerk _ a high school acquaintance of Eslinger's _ sold him the shotgun without seeing proper identification. Eslinger used his passport that did not show his address, a requirement for gun-sale paperwork. The Eslingers also allege Kmart was negligent in its hiring and employee training.

"This case comes down to corporate greed and irresponsibility in the sale of firearms," said James McKenna, the Eslingers' attorney.

Parker said that it is natural to feel sympathy for the Eslingers' loss but the case is about personal responsibility and individual choices.

"Kmart did not cause Ryan Eslinger to kill himself. This was a deliberate, intentional act," Parker said. "He was a very sick young man and he wanted to die."

Eslinger was diagnosis with paranoid schizophrenia in 1995 and declared legally mentally defective. He was involuntary committed in 1996 after cutting his throat in a suicide attempt. But on the gun application form, he denied he had ever been hospitalized for mental illness or adjudicated mentally defective.

A day after buying the weapon, Sandra Eslinger went out of town and her son returned to Kmart, where security manager Dan Willoughby assembled the shotgun for him. That night, Eslinger killed himself.

"If she didn't see any danger signs, I don't know how (the Eslingers) expected Kmart to see danger signs," Parker said.

Quoted:
I recently heard that KMART recieves a lawsuit every 10 minutes.  We NEED frivolous lawsuit reform in the US NOW !!!!!!  Seems like there are just too many lawyers,  and not enough work for them....

But Sandra and Phil Eslinger allege Kmart violated federal gun laws when their sales clerk _ a high school acquaintance of Eslinger's _ sold him the shotgun without seeing proper identification. Eslinger used his passport that did not show his address, a requirement for gun-sale paperwork. The Eslingers also allege Kmart was negligent in its hiring and employee training.

He was involuntary committed in 1996 after cutting his throat in a suicide attempt.