The parents of a 15-year-old girl have filed a wrongful death suit after she died from wounds received by a gunshot. The wrongful death suit, which was filed in the Colorado U.S. District Court, attributes the girl’s death to three companies that manufacture guns and gun-related items. The amount of compensation the parents are seeking was not specified but covers all legal expenses, emotional suffering and loss of future earning potential.
Browning, Remington and Vista Outdoors were named in the suit because they manufactured, respectively, the gun, ammunition and holster that allegedly caused the girl’s death. The suit goes further to question the operational effectiveness of each product. There was no known recall on any of the items before or around the time of the death.
Initial reports claimed the girl committed suicide, but several findings since then have uncovered enough information to refute those reports. The attorney representing the girl’s parents has stated that evidence showed the gun had been found underneath the girl’s body while still in the holster. The determined path of the bullet that killed her showed that the gun had to have been fired while being held in the right hand. She was left-handed. The coroner also listed her cause of death to be unknown.
A wrongful death suit can be filed against a person or group of people if their negligent actions caused the death of another person. The act that caused the fatality does not have to be intentional for damages to be sought. Those who feel the circumstances surrounding the death of their loved one warrant consideration for a suit of this type may want to speak to an attorney who knows the particular statutes in Colorado that could guide them to a financial settlement.
Source: guns.com, “Wrongful death suit filed against three gun-related companies“, Alexander Harris, Mar. 10, 2016