Florida: "Slain teacher's family files appeal in handgun suit"

[cuchulainn]

from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/lo...ow19nov19,0,4254502.story?coll=sfla-news-palm

Slain teacher's family files appeal in handgun suit

By Jon Burstein
Staff Writer
Posted November 19 2003

Attorneys for the family of murdered school teacher Barry Grunow filed their long-expected appeal this week of a judge's decision to toss out the $1.2 million jury verdict against a South Florida gun distributor.

The move sets in motion the next round in the civil case arising from the May 2000 shooting of the Lake Worth Middle School teacher by then 13-year-old Nathaniel Brazill. The legal team for Grunow's family wants the 4th District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach to reinstate the November 2002 verdict that had been heralded by gun control advocates as a major victory.

It will take months of legal back-and-forth before the appellate court hands down a ruling.

Grunow's family sued Valor Corp. of Sunrise, alleging the gun distributor should be held accountable for selling the .25-caliber Raven Arms pistol used to kill the father of two.

The lawsuit was intended to send a message to firearm companies to stop manufacturing and selling what Grunow's legal team called "junk guns" -- lightweight, cheap pistols, favored by criminals, that serve no legitimate purpose.

A Palm Beach County jury found that Valor should pay the Grunow family $1.2 million because the company negligently distributed the gun without an internal locking system or other safety devices.

Circuit Judge Jorge Labarga tossed out the verdict two months later, ruling that it was "fatally inconsistent." While jurors had found the company negligent in failing to provide the gun with better safety measures, it had rejected the contention that the gun was defective because it lacked those measures.

Grunow's attorneys argue in their 53-page appeal that the jury's findings aren't necessarily inconsistent, and even if they are, Labarga still erred in setting aside the verdict.

When Valor's attorneys heard the verdict, they didn't properly contest the alleged inconsistencies, wrote Edna Caruso, one of widow Pam Grunow's attorneys. She contends that means Labarga shouldn't have considered Valor's request to set the verdict aside. Rebecca Larson, another member of the Grunow legal team, said that Labarga's decision essentially "let a corporate defendant walk away from a jury that wanted to hold them liable."

"We're waiting for justice to be reinstated in this case," Larson said.

John Renzulli, one of Valor's attorneys, said Tuesday that Florida law is clear that the jury needed to find the product defective, because it lacked safety measures, before it could determine whether the company was negligent.

"If [the appellate court] follows the law, it will be a verdict for Valor," he said.

Brazill is serving a 28-year prison sentence after he was convicted of second-degree murder in May 2001.

Jon Burstein can be reached at [email protected] or 561-832-2895.

Copyright © 2003, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

 

[DonP]

Sound like lawyers in heat

That whole thing reads like a bunch of lawyers are frantic that they aren't going to get the big fat contingency checks they were counting on for the new Range Rover they promised the spouse for Christmas.

But then I may be cynical. That's at least two cases where a judge (here and the NAACP "guns are evil" suit) has set aside a stupid, emotionally drvien jury verdict or flat thrown the case out.

My sympathy goes out to the woman that lost her husband but not to the lawyers that are struggling to use her pain for their profit and agenda.

Don P.

 

[foghornl]

"We're waiting for justice to be reinstated in this case," Larson said.

That, Ms. Larson, will be when the next court slaps you and the rest of your filthy blood-sucking team down AGAIN.

 

[Blackhawk]

Wrong party is being charged with damages. They should be paid by Brazill and the owner of the gun who allowed him to get it.

If an unlicensed kid swipes the family minivan and kills a pedestrian, the survivors shouldn't try to collect damages from Chrysler, etc. It's the kid's fault and whoever allowed him to get behind the wheel.

Stupid lawyers looking for deep pockets....

 

[Silver Bullet]

I don't understand why the lawyers don't also sue some local car dealer for selling a car that was used in robbing a bank, and the local phone company for selling the cell phone that was used by some drug dealer.

 

[braindead0]

This is what happens when people ignore the signs.. First the Tobacco companies, then firearms, then fast food..then whatever.

Nothing is too absurd these days.. This had to be stopped in the beginning, the ball is rolling and the case precedence is set...

 

[Mark Tyson]

Poor people can't be trusted with guns of course, just yuppie duck hunters like John Kerry.

 

[feedthehogs]

This crap happened in my area. Lawyer Montgomery was one of the tobacco lawyers and has vowed to go after guns.
That thug Brazil broke in and stole the gun from his relatives house.
The pawn shop who legally sold it to the relative and the relative have already paid monetary damages thru their inurance companies to the widow after being sued by Mr. Slime Montgomery.
This for selling and storing a gun legally. ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRG!

It was cheaper for the insurance companies to settle rather that fight it.
The scum bag lawyers know this and the spinless insurance companies won't fight it.

Mr. Slime Montgomery was quoted in the paper the other day in regards to a different shooting by misguiding the public by saying a Glasser Safety round was an explosive bullet that only the police should be able to have have.

This guy needs to be hit by a bus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Standing Wolf]

Somebody murdered her husband, so she gets to eviscerate not only the innocent, but the law itself. If that's justice, I'm Siamese twins.