So if someone kills someone with a car, their family can sue Ford?
give me a break
shareThere's a difference. Cars are not designed to kill. When someone dies in a car crash it's considered an accident. When someone kills another with a gun it's murder.
I always had a knot there and now... It's gone.
But what if someone intentionally kills someone with a vehicle made by Ford? Can Ford be sued?
If someone murders another person with a kitchen knife, can the company that made the kitchen knife be sued?
Or is it only okay to go after gun makers?
I'm sorry, but the concept is ridiculous. It's not about justice. It's about revenge and getting a big payout.
"Never mind walking a mile in my shoes. Try thinking a day in my head."share
In this case the company was deliberately marketing their product in such a way as to circumvent all gun laws. They operated their own gun distributor/gun shop which employed people who recklessly sold huge numbers of automatic weapons to the same purchaser and got rewarded by the company with bonuses and vacations for meeting sales goals. The store manager actually was prosecuted for this. Further the company advertised its products in such a way that it would appeal to criminals by promoting the fingerprint proof grips. Now when such a manufacturer deliberately attempts to break existing laws in its marketing and this results in a death, that is foreseeable and the manufacturer could be held liable. The problem was in proving the management was doing this knowingly. In the end the jury did not seem to care, probably because the owner was such a terrible witness.
The comparison with Ford or knife manufacturers is a red herring. Those products do not cause death when they are used in the way they are supposed to be used. Guns do. Therefore when these other products cause death it is due to some intervening act by another person. Guns cause deaths when used as designed, but there are many laws on the books which regulate their sale and use. When the law is intentionally or knowingly violated by the manufacturer which results in death, even though the product is not at fault, the manufacturer may be.
Further in this case it was not about a big payout. If it had been she could have settled out of court and had a non-disclosure agreement. This was about punishing the disreputable manufacturer, not all gun sellers.