Court Says City Can’t Sue Gun Makers for Damages

Updated 10:48 AM ET August 12, 2000
CINCINNATI (Reuters) – Saying it did not want to open a “Pandora’s box”
for lawsuits against other industries, an appeals court has upheld a
judge’s decision to throw out a suit by the city of Cincinnati seeking
to recover millions of dollars from gun manufacturers.
In its unanimous decision Friday, the Ohio First District Court of
Appeals likened the city suit to the “absurdity” of suing the makers of
matches because of losses from arson. Cincinnati had joined with more
than 30 other cities nationwide in attempting to recover enormous
monetary sums from gunmakers for crime and violence done with guns.

The appellate court’s opinion said the city suit was fatally flawed
because it had failed to link any direct damages from gun violence to
specific gun-manufacturer defendants.

“Manufacturers have no duty to give warnings about the obvious dangers
of handguns,” the court’s majority opinion said.

“Were we to decide otherwise, we would open a Pandora’s box. The city
could sue the manufacturers of matches for arson, or automobile
manufacturers for traffic accidents, or breweries for drunken driving.”

Attorney Stanley Chesley, representing the city of Cincinnati, said he
would ask the City Council to authorize him to appeal Friday’s ruling to
the Ohio Supreme Court.