[url]http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/05/08/MN209101.DTL[/url]

[b]Jury blames gunmaker, awards Alameda County teen $50 million
Boy paralyzed in accident wins $50.9 million in damages [/b]

A boy left paralyzed nine years ago in an accidental shooting was awarded $50.9 million Wednesday by an Alameda County jury that took the unusual step of holding the gunmaker largely responsible for the tragedy.

Brandon Maxfield, now 16, of Willits, has been a quadriplegic since being shot in the jaw by a baby-sitter who was trying to unload the Bryco/Jennings pistol.

Richard Ruggieri, Brandon's attorney, said his client's family was "pleased but reserved" with the verdict.

It could be a long time before Brandon sees any money, Ruggieri said, because the jury still must decide what share of the award each of the defendants must pay.

The money is to compensate Brandon for future medical costs, pain and suffering, loss of wages and other actual damages, Ruggieri said. None of it is meant to be punitive to the defendants -- a distinction Ruggieri feels makes the case stronger and different from awards that are based on sympathy for the victim.

The case is being hailed as important by gun-control advocates because the gun industry historically has escaped legal liability in such cases.

In this case, Ruggieri successfully showed that the semiautomatic pistol -- a cheap model commonly referred to as a Saturday Night Special -- was defective in its design.

"This is one of the first juries ever to hold any gun manufacturer responsible for a flaw in its design," said Victoria Ni, spokeswoman for Trial Lawyers for Public Justice.

"The flaw was that in order to render the gun safe and unloaded, you had to disengage the only safety on the gun and put it in a dangerous condition," she said. "So it's kind of like putting the 'off' button on the bottom of a (power) lawn mower."

Calls to Bryco Arms in the Orange County town of Costa Mesa went unanswered Wednesday. Phone messages left for four defense attorneys were not returned.

Ruggieri said even though he was satisfied with the case's outcome, it was too soon to get overly excited for Brandon's family.


APPEAL LIKELY
First, the case will probably be appealed. Assuming it is upheld, the family will still need to actually collect the money from the defendants. And that may all be for naught, because a bill now wending its way through Congress might render the whole matter moot.

That bill, sponsored by the National Rifle Association and the gun industry,

would wipe out virtually all civil liability for gun manufacturers and distributors. It has passed the House and is expected to clear the Senate.

"We're certainly concerned with it," Ruggieri said. "It would be a human tragedy if something like that would block something like this."

Ruggieri said the bill might not apply to Brandon's case. "But it has enough vague language that it's got to be considered as a danger."

While Ni and other special interest advocates are watching the trial for its larger implications, Ruggieri is not.

'NOT ABOUT 2ND AMENDMENT'

"This trial is not about the Second Amendment or the right to bear arms," he said. "This is just a case about Brandon."

Brandon, who was 7 at the time of the accident, uses a ventilator at night and must undergo a number of operations just to survive, Ruggieri said.

"It's almost as complete an injury as you can get," he said.

Despite spending more than 500 days in the hospital since being shot, Brandon has remained with his class in school.

He is now a high school sophomore with dreams of graduating and studying paleontology at UC-Davis.

"He's an amazing kid," Ruggieri said of the boy, whom the jury saw in court once.

Brandon's life was changed on April 6, 1994, when he and a 12-year-old relative were being watched in their home by a family friend who was temporarily living with them.

The 12-year-old believed that some adult had told him to get the gun out, Ruggieri said.

When he did, the 20-year-old baby-sitter -- Larry William Moreford II -- intervened and took the pistol from the boy.

"He was trying to unload the gun," Ruggieri said. "In order to do that, he had to put it on 'fire.' The gun slipped in his hand and it went off. This was not a 'child playing with a gun' type of situation."

In addition to Bryco Arms and related defendants from the gun industry, the jury held Moreford and Brandon's parents partly liable.

"It's the kind of a tragedy that has many victims," Ruggieri said, "not only the fellow who was holding the gun when it went off, but both of the parents -- neither will ever forgive themselves."

Gun manufacturers are sued, tobacco industry is sued and that leaves alcohol.

I haven't heard about any alcohol lawsuits.  Does alcohol have a bigger lobby or something?

So the idiot baby sitter points the gun at the kid while trying to unload it.  Yeah, right, clearly the gun manufacturer is at fault. [rolleyes]