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Judge dismisses Miami-Dade gun lawsuit
Updated 6:02 PM ET December 13, 1999
By Jane Sutton
MIAMI, (Reuters) - A Florida judge threw out a Miami-Dade County lawsuit against gun manufacturers, ruling on Monday that the lawsuit was too vague and the county lacked legal standing as a plaintiff.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas filed the product liability lawsuit against two dozen gun-makers, distributors and industry groups in January, seeking to recoup hundreds of millions of tax dollars spent by Florida's largest county in treating gunfire victims and investigating gun-related crimes.
But Circuit Court Judge Amy Dean granted the gun manufacturers' request to dismiss the lawsuit on Monday, ruling that the county "is not the proper party plaintiff to bring this lawsuit."
The Miami-Dade lawsuit was one of a string brought by some 28 municipalities, including Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco, against handgun makers seeking reimbursement for public spending related to gun violence.
Dean wrote in the ruling that Florida law requires that plaintiffs in product liability cases show that they were harmed by a specific defect in a specific product made by a specific manufacturer.
The county's claim covered a variety of products made and legally sold by various manufacturers over an indeterminate length of time, the judge said.
Additionally, she ruled, the damages the county sought were "purely derivative" of damages suffered by third parties and therefore "too remote" to be recoverable.
Penelas said he was disappointed by the ruling and would appeal it.
"I remain committed to pursuing legal action on behalf of the children in our community who have been killed or injured by gunfire, deaths and injuries that could have been prevented if the gun industry would manufacture safer, childproof guns and change its negligent distribution and marketing practices," Penelas said.
The suit alleged that the gun-makers sold products that were defective because they lacked safety devices such as trigger locks and load indicators that would reveal whether there is a bullet in the firing chamber.
The lawsuits brought by municipalities around the country have been patterned after successful lawsuits brought by U.S. states against the tobacco industry, which forced cigarette makers into multibillion-dollar settlements.
The Clinton Administration said last week it would also file a class action lawsuit against the gun industry unless manufacturers agreed to make major changes in the way they market and distribute guns.
But in September, an Ohio judge dismissed a similar suit filed against the gun makers by the City of Cincinnati. That judge said the issue belonged before the legislature, not the court.
Defendants in the Miami-Dade lawsuit included Smith & Wesson Corp., a unit of the British conglomerate Tomkins Plc ; Beretta U.S.A. Corp.; Glock Inc.; Sturm, Ruger & Co Inc ; Colt's Manufacturing Company Inc.; Browning Arms Co. and Carl Walther GmbH. http://news.excite.com/news/r/991213/18/guns-florida
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