Sig Sauer ordered to pay $11 million to Philadelphia man wounded by holstered pistol

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM The Associated Press

A Philadelphia jury awarded $11 million on Wednesday to a man whose holstered Sig Sauer pistol went off while he was going down the stairs, causing a serious leg injury — the second major verdict this year against the embattled gun manufacturer over its P320 model.

After a three-week trial, the jury concluded that New Hampshire-based Sig Sauer was negligent for selling a defective gun and holster. The plaintiff’s lawyers said the P320 pistol is prone to going off unintentionally, a defect that has led to scores of injuries around the U.S.

More than 100 people have come forward to make similar allegations about the P320. Sig Sauer insists the gun is safe.

“We’ve been asking Sig for over three years now to recall this gun, to fix it, and frankly to use the same type of safeties that other manufacturers are using that Sig Sauer is not,” Robert W. Zimmerman, the plaintiff’s lawyer, said after the verdict.

He added that the verdict “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 has said he holstered his P320, put it in the pocket of his athletic pants and zipped it up before going downstairs. The gun went off and the bullet tore through his right thigh, exiting above the knee, causing permanent injuries, according to court documents.

At trial, Sig Sauer sought to shift blame to Abrahams. The company said in a statement posted on its website that jurors had “agreed that plaintiff’s own negligence contributed to his accident,” and it defended the P320 as “among the most tested, proven, and successful handguns in recent history.” The plaintiff did not deny the gun fired because the trigger moved.

“We strongly disagree with the verdict in this unintended discharge lawsuit … and will be appealing the decision on multiple grounds,” the company said.

Earlier this year, a federal jury awarded $2.35 million to a Georgia man who was wounded when his holstered P320 went off. Zimmerman’s law firm, Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky, also represented that plaintiff, and has a raft of other pending claims against Sig Sauer. The company has indicated it plans to appeal the Georgia verdict.

“We have said it before, and juries are now speaking loud and clear with their verdicts; this gun is a danger to gun owners and anyone within the vicinity of this gun,” Ryan Hurd, Zimmerman’s co-counsel, said in a statement Wednesday.

Abrahams’ lawsuit, which was filed in 2022, recounted dozens of unintended discharge incidents involving the P320, of which lawyers have estimated there are about a half-million in circulation in the U.S. The suit asserted the P320 “is the most dangerous pistol for its users sold in the United States market.”

The military version of the pistol comes with an external safety to prevent unintended discharges, according to plaintiffs’ lawyers, but the model sold to police departments and civilians does not.

In 2019, the unintentional discharge of a Philadelphia transit officer’s holstered P320 prompted SEPTA, the city’s transit agency, to remove all of its P320 handguns from service and replace them with Glocks.

Sig Sauer has settled at least one federal class action lawsuit involving the P320, involving pistols made before 2017, offering refunds or replacement guns to purchasers.

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This story was first published on Nov. 20, 2024. It was updated on Nov. 21, 2024, to remove an erroneous reference to the plaintiff’s holstered pistol going off by itself. The plaintiff did not deny the gun fired because the trigger moved.