South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Copyright 2002, South Florida Sun-Sentinel. All Rights Reserved.
Friday, November 15, 2002
LOCAL
ATTORNEY ACHIEVES LANDMARK; A WELL-KNOWN LAWYER ADDS TO HIS LAURELS IN LITIGATION FOR SOCIAL CAUSES.
By Peter Franceschina Staff Writer
West Palm Beach attorney Bob Montgomery's proclaimed mission was
to
drive up insurance costs for manufacturers and distributors of so-called
Saturday Night Specials so high it would put them out of business.
He didn't get the decisive verdict he was hoping for Thursday
afternoon, but he still won what gun-control advocates call a
significant victory from the first case of its kind to be decided
by a
jury -- a gun distributor held liable for selling a product without
adequate safety controls.
Although Sunrise gun distributor Valor Corp. was found only minimally
responsible for selling the gun used in the killing, Montgomery
said
that he still was pleased with the result and that it would encourage
similar cases against the gun industry around the country.
Montgomery said the verdict sends a clear message to gun
manufacturers, distributors and dealers. "Get Saturday Night
Specials
out of here. If you have sold a Saturday Night Special or distributed
one, you better go out and pick it up."
Although he was asking for $76 million in damages, jurors awarded
$24
million to Pam Grunow, the widow of murdered Lake Worth teacher
Barry
Grunow. But they found the gun distributor responsible for only
5
percent of those damages -- $1.2 million.
It was a verdict that both sides claimed as a success.
Montgomery, 72, is a courtroom power to be reckoned with. He has
won
more than 60 multimillion-dollar verdicts over 20 years, and he
spearheaded Florida's efforts to sue Big Tobacco, winning an $11.3
billion settlement for smoking-related health-care costs. That landmark
case pushed him even further along the path of philanthropy and
gave him
the leisure to take up social causes in the legal forum.
He added an aspect to his legacy Thursday when gun-control advocates
hailed the verdict as a first to hold a manufacturer or distributor
negligent for selling a gun -- in this case, a Raven Arms .25-caliber
pistol that retailed for about $65 -- that didn't have an internal
locking system to prevent unauthorized use.
"That's a very, very good result," Montgomery said. "It
was a crusade
that came to life."
His co-counsel, Rebecca Larson, who handled the bulk of the gritty
legal details in a two-year, hard-fought battle to bring the case
to
trial, said she and Montgomery grew passionate about getting cheap,
easily concealed handguns off the street. They argued the guns are
predominantly used in crime and preferred by juveniles.
"We felt very, very strongly about this product," Larson
said. "It's a
terrible, terrible product."
The two attorneys pursued a novel legal theory on several fronts,
arguing that the Raven, and other guns like it, serves no legitimate
purpose because it isn't collectible, accurate enough for target
shooting or reliable enough for self-defense. Raven Arms wasn't
a
defendant because the company went out of business a decade ago.
The thrust of the case was that the gun was a defective product,
but
jurors agreed with Valor's attorneys that the gun worked as it was
designed to do. Still, Montgomery said it was a watershed that jurors
said the gun should have had better safety features. For years,
the gun
industry has successfully fought similar suits around the country.
"It is the first time a Saturday Night Special manufacturer
or
distributor has a responsibility to make that gun safe, to prevent
unauthorized users from using it," Montgomery said.
Despite his wins against industries with powerful political influence
and lobbying groups, Montgomery said he is through with Big Tobacco
and
the gun industry. More recently, he has become active in the political
issues surrounding the Palm Beach County School Board.
"I always said I only had one tobacco case in me. And I only
have one
gun case in me."
Peter Franceschina can be reached at pfranceschina@sun-sentinel.com
or
561-832-2894.
TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET FORTH IN THIS DOCUMENT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE
PHOTOS 2 Montgomery said he was pleased with the result in the Grunow
case.
Pool photo/Shannon O'Brien
(color) Done: Attorney Bob Montgomery reaches out to Pam Grunow
on Thursday
after a jury ordered a gun distributor to pay $1.2 million to Grunow,
the
widow of a teacher shot by a 13-year-old student in a landmark case
targeting
inexpensive handguns. (ran on 1B in Palm Beach only.)