O'neal v. Remington Arms Company, LLC

Facts

P is the widow of Lanny. Remington (Ds) is in the business of selling firearms, one of which was the Remington Model 700, .243 caliber bolt action rifle. On November 9, 2008, Lanny was deer hunting with friends and loaned Mark Ritter a Remington Model 700 rifle to use hunting that day. The hunters were traveling in a pickup truck when they came across a deer. Ritter was sitting in the back seat of the truck and Lanny sat in the front seat. Ritter began exiting the truck so that he could shoot the deer. While Ritter was exiting, the rifle discharged when Ritter moved the safety from the 'on' position to the 'off' position, and Lanny was shot and killed. P alleges that the rifle was defective and that the defect was the reason the rifle discharged, causing the death of her husband. The rifle was manufactured in 1971. Doug Swanson, Lanny's stepfather, acquired the rifle in the early-to-mid 1980s from the estate of his mother's boyfriend, Albert Mcilvenna. Swanson does not know when or how Mcilvenna acquired the rifle nor does he know whether the rifle was ever modified or altered prior to his acquisition of the rifle. Swanson loaned it to Lanny in approximately 2005 or 2006. Lanny remained in possession of the rifle until the day of the accident. The rifle was never altered or modified from the time Swanson acquired it until the day of the accident, and Swanson did not have a gunsmith examine the rifle while he owned it. Shawn O'Neal and P met with attorney Chris Messerly of Robins Kaplan to discuss the circumstances of Lanny's death. Robins Kaplan acquired the rifle from the FBI but never had the rifle inspected. On March 26, 2010, P and her friend, Joe Weir, retrieved the rifle from Robins Kaplan after it was determined that no legal action would be taken by Robins Kaplan on behalf of P. P then asked Weir to destroy the rifle because she did not want the rifle that killed her husband to be in her house. Weir complied with O'Neal's request and destroyed the rifle. P brought this product liability action against Ds on December 9, 2011, after hearing about a news report detailing certain problems with Remington rifles. P moved for partial summary judgment on the issue of product defect, arguing that collateral estoppel/issue preclusion precludes Ds from relitigating the issue of whether their product-the Model 700 rifle-was defective. D moved for summary judgment. 

Issues

Rule of Law

Holding and Decision

Legal Analysis

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