Illinois Appeals Court Gives Gun Suit New Life

In what the Chicago Tribune called “a significant victory for gun-control advocates,” an Illinois Appellate Court ruled on Dec. 31 that gun manufacturers and distributors can be sued on the grounds that their products create a “public nuisance.”

This is the first time an Illinois appeals court has allowed the novel legal strategy to go to trial. The decision allows the family of slain Chicago Police Officer Michael Ceriale and relatives of four others killed with guns to press the claim in Cook County Circuit Court that firearms manufacturers and distributors have “nurtured a climate of violence” by flooding Chicago and its suburbs with guns.

Writing for the three-member panel, Appellate Judge William Cousins Jr. ruled: “In our view, a reasonable trier of fact could find that the criminal misuse of guns killing persons were occurrences that defendants knew would result or were substantially certain to result from the defendants’ alleged conduct.”

The decision represents the biggest win to date for gun control advocates in their drive to use public nuisance laws to hold gunmakers accountable, legal experts say.

But the 35-page opinion sharply narrowed the scope of the families’ lawsuits.

It said the families were free to sue manufacturers and distributors of the guns used in the crimes, but barred them from suing other gunmakers as a public nuisance.

That represented a step back from a Feb. 14, 2001 ruling by Circuit Judge Jennifer Duncan-Brice that would have allowed the families to sue more than two dozen firearms manufacturers and distributors, including ones whose products were not used in the five Chicago shootings.

Even so, the appeals court’s decision represents a major victory for gun control forces, said Jonathan Baum, an attorney for the families of Officer Michael Ceriale and the four others.

“What the court has ruled was that the manufacturers set in motion a chain of events with the foreseeable result being the death of our clients,” Baum said.

The manufacturers remaining as defendants include Bryco Arms, Navegar Inc. and Smith & Wesson Corp. Dealers named include Breit & Johnson Sporting Goods Inc. and Chuck’s Gun Shop, where the pistol in the Ceriale shooting was originally purchased in a legal transaction, but later was resold to a street gang.

The defendants could appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court. Otherwise, the case goes back to the trial court.

There was no immediate response from the National Rifle Association or William N. Howard, an attorney for Chuck’s Gun Shop, one of the dealer defendants. However, the Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA) said that if the court’s logic was extended to other industries, any number of products could be found unlawful.

“For example, manufacturers of hypodermic syringes must know that their products will be used to inject illegal drugs,” the ISRA said.

The gun makers had maintained it was not fair to link them with street crime just because their lawful products were misused.

Of about 30 similar suits filed nationwide, this is the first to win a favorable decision, said David Kairys, the Temple University professor who came up with this strategy.

In addition to allowing the Ceriale case to proceed, the Appellate Court’s decision could also influence a similar suit brought by the city of Chicago, which is pending before the same panel. The city’s suit, which also raised nuisance issues, was dismissed in September 2000 by a Cook County judge.

Lawyers for the city said that the appellate decision in the Ceriale case—while not binding in the city’s case—“gives every indication” that the lawsuit will be reinstated.

But James Dorr, attorney for two of the gunmakers, said: “I’m sure we’ll consider” appealing.

Lawsuits against the gun industry have cast a new light on the doctrine of public nuisance, the area of law that lets officials put a stop to activities that pose a danger to the public. In more traditional cases, cities have used such laws to put a clamp on unlawful use of fireworks or industries belching smoke.

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