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FAIR USE:
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

NOW BRING ON THE COUNTER-SUITS!!!