HARTFORD, Conn. _ A Superior Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the families of some of the victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting against the manufacturer of the weapon used in the massacre.
In a 54-page written ruling, Judge Barbara Bellis agreed with attorneys for Remington Outdoor Co. that the lawsuit "falls squarely within the broad immunity" provided by federal law, specifically the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.
Attorneys for Remington had filed the motion to dismiss the case several months ago based on PLCAA and had been delaying producing documents the plaintiffs were requesting through discovery as they waited for Bellis' ruling.
The families of 10 victims of the Sandy Hook shooting filed the lawsuit in January 2015 against the Remington Outdoor Co., the maker of the Bushmaster rifle used by Adam Lanza to kill 26 people, including 20 first-graders, inside the Newtown school.
The lawsuit also named Camfour Holding LLC, the gun's distributor and Riverview Sales, the store where Nancy Lanza, Adam's mother, bought the AR-15. Bellis dismissed the lawsuit against all of the companies.
The judge made it clear that the families' claims that the gun company should be held liable for Adam Lanza's actions did not meet the narrow exceptions the federal law allows.
"Although PLCAA provides a narrow exception under which plaintiffs may maintain an action for negligent entrustment of a firearm, the allegations in the present case do not fit within the common-law tort of negligent entrustment under well-established Connecticut law, nor do they come within PLCAA's definition of negligent entrustment," Bellis wrote.
"Furthermore, the plaintiffs cannot avail themselves of the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act (CUTPA) to bring this action within PLCAA's exception allowing lawsuits for violation of a state statute applicable to the sale or marketing of firearms. A plaintiff under CUTPA must allege some kind of consumer, competitor, or other commercial relationship with a defendant, and the plaintiffs here have alleged no such relationship," the judge wrote.
