Sig Sauer ordered to pay $11 million to Philadelphia man wounded by pistol that went off by itself
A Philadelphia jury on Wednesday awarded $11 million to a man whose holstered Sig Sauer pistol went off on its own while he was walking down the stairs, causing serious leg injuries — the second major verdict this year against the embattled gun maker over its P320 model.
After a three-week trial, the jury concluded that New Hampshire-based Sig Sauer was negligent in selling a defective pistol and holster. The plaintiff’s attorneys said it was the P320 pistol tends to go off without pulling the trigger, a defect that has led to dozens of injuries in the US
More than 100 people have come forward with similar allegations about the P320. Sig Sauer insists the gun is safe.
“We have been asking Sig for over three years now to recall this gun, fix it and, frankly, use the same kind of safety that other manufacturers use but not Sig Sauer,” said Robert W. Zimmerman, the plaintiff’s attorney. , said after the verdict.
The jury’s verdict, he said, “sends a strong message to Sig Sauer that they need to do something with this gun.”
Zimmerman represented George Abrahams, a U.S. Army veteran and painting contractor in Philadelphia, who said he holstered his P320, put it in the pocket of his jockstraps and zipped it up before heading downstairs. The gun went off and the bullet tore through his right thigh and exited above the knee, causing permanent injuries, according to court documents.
During the trial, Sig Sauer tried to shift the blame to Abrahams and defended the weapon’s design as safe. An email was sent to the gunmaker’s spokesperson on Wednesday requesting comment on the verdict.
Earlier this year, a federal jury awarded $2.35 million to a Georgia man who was injured when his holstered P320 went off. Zimmerman’s law firm, Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky, also represented the plaintiff and has a series of other pending claims against Sig Sauer. The company has indicated that it plans to appeal the judgment in Georgia.
“We’ve said it before, and juries are now speaking loud and clear with their verdicts; This gun poses a danger to gun owners and anyone who is near this gun,” Zimmerman co-counsel Ryan Hurd said in a statement Wednesday.
Abrahams’ lawsuit, filed in 2022, recounted dozens of accidental discharge incidents involving the P320, of which lawyers estimate there are about half a million in circulation in the US. The lawsuit claimed that the P320 is “the most dangerous handgun sold by its users in the U.S. market.”
The military version of the gun comes with an external safety to prevent accidental discharges, plaintiffs’ attorneys said, but the model sold to law enforcement and civilians does not.
In 2019, the accidental discharge of the P320 in a Philadelphia transformer holster prompted SEPTA, the city’s transportation agency, to retire all of its P320 pistols and replace them with Glocks.
Sig Sauer has settled at least one federal class action lawsuit involving the P320, involving pistols made before 2017, with buyers receiving refunds or replacement weapons.