Gun maker told to pay $51 million

Deepa Bharath

An Oakland jury on Wednesday awarded $50.9 million in compensatory

damages to a teenager, holding a local gun maker responsible for a

1994 accidental shooting that left him paralyzed when he was 7 years

old.

The jury decided on April 21 that Bryco Arms of Costa Mesa was 10%

liable for what happened to Brandon Maxfield because jurors believed

that the company manufactured a defective weapon. A family friend had

accidentally shot Maxfield in the jaw while trying to unload a

.38-caliber handgun, commonly dubbed a “Saturday Night Special.”

Wednesday’s decision was a “wake-up call for gun makers to act

responsibly,” said Victoria Ni, an attorney with Trial Lawyers for

Public Justice. Ni works with Maxfield’s attorney, Richard Ruggieri,

on the case.

Ni said Bryco Arms is one of six Southern California companies

that form the so-called “Ring of Fire,” responsible for the

distribution of millions of smaller caliber guns or Saturday Night

Specials. She said the gun has “an inherent flaw” because to unload

it, a user must first unlock the trigger lock, which can be quite

dangerous.

Bryco officials were not available Wednesday to comment on whether

they would appeal the decision.

Ni said she was “very pleased” with the verdict.

“I think Bryco’s utter disregard for customer safety came out

during this trial,” she said. “They didn’t spend a penny on [research

and development], and the jury heard that loud and clear.”

Former owner Bruce Jennings said in an interview with the Daily

Pilot in 1999 that, at the time, Bryco was named in more than 20

lawsuits filed in cities across the nation. Jennings gave the Costa

Mesa business he founded to his wife, Janice, as part of their

divorce settlement. The lawsuits, he said, claimed manufacturers like

Bryco are liable for gun-related deaths.

As recently as October 2001, a New Mexico Supreme Court ruled that

Bryco Arms had a duty to make and sell handguns with safety features.

That ruling upheld the Appeals Court’s decision, the first such

appellate court ruling in New Mexico, that guns without reasonable

safety mechanisms can be unreasonably dangerous and, hence,

defective.

The case in New Mexico was brought about on behalf of Sean Smith,

a 14-year-old who was unintentionally shot and injured by one of his

friends after that friend got ahold of a Bryco J-22 pistol. The

ammunition magazine was removed from it, but the boy did not see a

round hidden in its chamber when he pulled the trigger and shot

Smith.

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at deepa.bharath@latimes.com.