RENZULLI LAW FIRM IS VICTORIOUS IN FEDERAL APPEAL’S COURT UPHOLDING DISMISSAL OF PRODUCTS LIABILITY LAWSUIT FOR FIREARM MANUFACTURER CLIENT

April 17, 2025 – Renzulli Law Firm originally secured a complete dismissal of a products liability case on behalf of one of its firearm manufacturer clients through a motion for summary judgment.  Plaintiffs alleged that the subject pistol contained a design defect, and that defect resulted in the pistol discharging after the owner dropped it and it struck the concrete floor of his garage.  Through discovery, RLF proved that the design of the pistol met all industry standards with regard to drop testing, that the pistol would not discharge a round of ammunition when dropped under conditions similar to the scenario presented in the case, and that the opposing expert’s opinion of defect could not be attributable to the manufacturer and was not a cause of this alleged incident.

Plaintiffs appealed the decision; and in a unanimous decision issued by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, the court agreed that plaintiffs’ case was properly dismissed before trial for failing to prove a prima facie case that the pistol was defective and a proximate cause of the injuries.

The appeals court reviewed the lower court’s decision granting summary judgment “de novo,” meaning it took a fresh look at the evidence and the law.  After doing so, the Eleventh Circuit also concluded that plaintiffs and their expert were unable to establish a defect in the pistol attributable to the manufacturer. The court noted that “late in the day—really only at oral argument before us—they realized that their case would fail unless they could somehow show that the two defects worked in tandem to cause [plaintiff’s] injury. So they switched from a ‘Defect A or Defect B’ theory to a ‘Defect A and Defect B’ theory. They can’t do that.”  The court went on to state, even if their defect theories survived, “we hold that they didn’t present sufficient evidence of causation to survive summary judgment.” 

If you have any questions about the Eleventh Circuit’s decision, or the defense of cases against the firearms industry, please contact John Renzulli or Christopher Renzulli.