South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Copyright 2003, South Florida Sun-Sentinel. All Rights Reserved.
Wednesday, November 19, 2003
LOCAL
SLAIN TEACHER'S FAMILY FILES APPEAL IN HANDGUN SUIT
By Jon Burstein Staff Writer
Attorneys for the family of murdered school teacher Barry Grunow
filed their
long-expected appeal this week of a judge's decision to toss out
the $1.2
million jury verdict against a South Florida gun distributor. The
move sets in
motion the next round in the civil case arising from the May 2000
shooting of
the Lake Worth Middle School teacher by then 13-year-old Nathaniel
Brazill. The
legal team for Grunow's family wants the 4th District Court of Appeal
in West
Palm Beach to reinstate the November 2002 verdict that had been
heralded by gun
control advocates as a major victory.
It will take months of legal back-and-forth before the appellate
court hands
down a ruling.
Grunow's family sued Valor Corp. of Sunrise, alleging the gun distributor
should be held accountable for selling the .25-caliber Raven Arms
pistol used
to kill the father of two.
The lawsuit was intended to send a message to firearm companies
to stop
manufacturing and selling what Grunow's legal team called "junk
guns" --
lightweight, cheap pistols, favored by criminals, that serve no
legitimate
purpose.
A Palm Beach County jury found that Valor should pay the Grunow
family $1.2
million because the company negligently distributed the gun without
an internal
locking system or other safety devices.
Circuit Judge Jorge Labarga tossed out the verdict two months later,
ruling
that it was "fatally inconsistent." While jurors had found
the company
negligent in failing to provide the gun with better safety measures,
it had
rejected the contention that the gun was defective because it lacked
those
measures.
Grunow's attorneys argue in their 53-page appeal that the jury's
findings
aren't necessarily inconsistent, and even if they are, Labarga still
erred in
setting aside the verdict.
When Valor's attorneys heard the verdict, they didn't properly contest
the
alleged inconsistencies, wrote Edna Caruso, one of widow Pam Grunow's
attorneys. She contends that means Labarga shouldn't have considered
Valor's
request to set the verdict aside. Rebecca Larson, another member
of the Grunow
legal team, said that Labarga's decision essentially "let a
corporate defendant
walk away from a jury that wanted to hold them liable."
"We're waiting for justice to be reinstated in this case,"
Larson said.
John Renzulli, one of Valor's attorneys, said Tuesday that Florida
law is clear
that the jury needed to find the product defective, because it lacked
safety
measures, before it could determine whether the company was negligent.
"If [the appellate court] follows the law, it will be a verdict
for Valor," he
said.
Brazill is serving a 28-year prison sentence after he was convicted
of second-
degree murder in May 2001.
Jon Burstein can be reached at jburstein@sun-sentinel.com or 561-832-2895.
Grunow
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