MN Attorney General sues Second Chance over Zylon failure

[Andrew Rothman]

This looks very bad. The AG says that documents show that Second Chance knew about, and cynically tried to hide, the problems with Zylon deterioration and the danger it posed.

If true, this is the end of that company.

http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/4721727.html

Protective-vest maker hid defects, Hatch alleges
Conrad Defiebre, Star Tribune
April 15, 2004

A Michigan company deliberately covered up life-threatening defects in lightweight protective vests it supplied to nearly 1,500 Minnesota law enforcement officers, state Attorney General Mike Hatch alleged Wednesday in a lawsuit. The suit accuses Second Chance Body Armor Inc. of consumer fraud, deceptive trade practices and breach of warranties.

At the same time, Hatch sent warnings to all Minnesota police and sheriffs' departments about the vests, which are made from the synthetic fiber Zylon.

Zylon has been found to deteriorate rapidly when exposed to heat, light, humidity and moisture.

Second Chance pulled its Zylon vests from the market last September, three months after a Pennsylvania police officer was seriously injured when a bullet pierced his 6-month-old vest, which the company had guaranteed for five years.

That prompted Angela Trutnow, a Shakopee police officer, to stop wearing her Second Chance-made Zylon vest. "It's worthless," she said at a State Capitol news conference with Hatch. "And I don't have the money to buy another one on my own."

A Second Chance spokeswoman said Wednesday that the company had not seen Hatch's suit and could not comment on it. In a news release Tuesday, the company sought to blame its Zylon supplier for the problems.

Hatch said he is the first of the company's legal challengers to disclose documents showing a cover-up by Second Chance and its Zylon supplier, Toyobo Co. of Japan.

According to the suit filed in Ramsey County District Court, Toyobo warned Second Chance of Zylon's degradation under sunlight in July 1998, even before Second Chance began selling vests made from the material. In July 2001, Toyobo warned of degradation from heat and humidity, prompting a German manufacturer to pull its Zylon vests.

Weeks later, the documents show, Second Chance offered Toyobo increased royalties in exchange for an exclusive agreement to buy its ballistic-grade Zylon. Then, Second Chance suggested, both companies could dismiss competitors' claims of product defects as sour grapes over a material the rivals couldn't get.

According to documents included with the suit, in August 2001, as Toyobo's testing continued to show Zylon's shortcomings, the two companies entered a confidentiality agreement. In December 2001, Second Chance executives repeatedly discussed the problem but took no action, according to the suit.

Then, in July 2002, Second Chance President Richard C. Davis proposed to his board that the company either halt production of Zylon vests or "continue operating as though nothing is wrong until one of our customers is killed or wounded, or Germany, Japan, DuPont or some other entity exposes the Zylon problem," according to the documents.

Second Chance "did nothing to address the problem until tragedy struck about a year later," the suit alleges.

String of suits filed

In recent months, Second Chance has offered free upgrade kits to officers. But they make the vests heavier and uncomfortable, nullifying the advantages the company touted for the Zylon vests, which cost $700 to $1,000 apiece.

Also Wednesday, Hatch criticized a recent U.S. Department of Justice study in which 10 of 20 Zylon vests were penetrated by at least one of six bullets fired at each of them. The department pronounced the tests inconclusive and did not identify the vests by their manufacturers. It is conducting further tests.

Hatch's suit, the latest in a string filed against Second Chance by other states and the National Association of Police Organizations, seeks to recoup more than $1 million that Minnesota officers spent on the company's Zylon vests since 1998, much of it reimbursed with public funds.

But, the attorney general said, the company's shaky finances may make that impossible. More important, he added, is to warn officers about the risks of the defective vests and to expose Second Chance's corporate irresponsibility.

Conrad deFiebre is at [email protected].

 

[atek3]

wow. Thats lame, especially the cover up part. Too bad really, zylon was really great (except for the whole getting shot and dying after vest fails part)

atek3

 

[7.62FullMetalJacket]

If true, it is damning. No company that knowingly and willfully sells defective safety equipment can survive.

 

[TBeck]

Anytime a manufacturer allows a potentially catastrophic flaw to go uncorrected due to concerns about image or the costs of rectifying the problem they should have their heads handed to them.

Somebody should tell Glock.

 

[mpthole]

While I agree that if there is a problem with Second Chance, they should be held to some degree of liability, I'm very willing to wait and see what happens. AG Hatch is no friend to anyone when it comes to product liability... its always someone else's fault. IIRC he was very involved in the tobacco lawsuits.

 

[SteelyDan]

Hatch sees the Attorney General's office as a stepping-stone to what he really wants, which is the governor's office. To further this agenda, he seeks out causes that will get his name in the papers. In my opinion, of course. While I don't trust him in the least, I suspect he is sufficiently savvy to not pursue an issue that would backfire on him, so perhaps there is something to his claim.