Guay v. Sig Sauer, Inc.

District Court, D. New Hampshire·Decided September 8, 2022·No. 1:20-cv-00736·Unknown

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

Kyle Guay

v. Civil No. 20-cv-736-LM Opinion No. 2022 DNH 109 P Sig Sauer, Inc.

O R D E R On the evening of January 28, 2020, plaintiff Kyle Guay returned home from walking his dogs and, as he did every night, started to remove his holster from his belt. The holster held his Sig Sauer P320 pistol. While removing the holster—and even though he had not pulled the trigger—the P320 suddenly fired. Guay was shot in the leg and sustained entrance and exit gunshot wounds to his right thigh. Guay sued Sig Sauer for products liability, violation of express and implied warranties, violation of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, and violation of New Hampshire’s Consumer Protection Act, RSA chapter 358-A (the “CPA”). In July 2022, the court held a four-day jury trial. The CPA claim was tried to the court because there is no right to a jury trial under that statute. See Hair Excitement, Inc. v. L’Oreal U.S.A., Inc., 158 N.H. 363, 369-70 (2009). A jury decided the remaining claims in Sig Sauer’s favor. After trial, the court took the CPA claim under advisement. Despite finding Guay’s version of events credible, the court concludes that Guay did not meet his burden to prove that Sig Sauer engaged in an unfair or deceptive act under the CPA. See RSA 358-A:2. This order details the court’s findings of fact and rulings of law. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 52(a).

FINDINGS OF FACT I. Kyle Guay Guay lives in Hillsboro, New Hampshire, and works as a shop foreman servicing vehicles. He has a long history of using firearms. His father—a military veteran—first taught Guay to handle guns when Guay was between three and five years old. In addition, Guay’s brother—also a veteran—trained Guay in firearms use. Guay took a hunter safety course in his early teens. As to pistols specifically, he bought his first one in 2010. Prior to this incident, none of Guay’s guns had ever accidentally discharged. Guay purchased a Sig Sauer P320 pistol at Shooters Outpost in Hooksett, New Hampshire, in December 2016. Before buying it, Guay researched the P320 online. During this research, Guay read a statement on Sig Sauer’s website stating that “the P320 won't fire unless you want it to.” Specifically, the statement read:

SAFETY WITHOUT COMPROMISE We've designed safety elements into every necessary feature on this pistol, From the trigger, to the striker and even the magazine the P320 won't fire unless you want it to

After purchasing the P320, Guay carried it with him every time he took his two dogs for a walk. He had no incidents with it for three-plus years.

II. The Accident (January 28, 2020)

On January 28, 2020, after returning home from taking his dogs for a walk, Guay began to remove his holster, using his right hand to grab the holster and work it off his belt. The gun fired, and a bullet went through Guay’s right thigh—leaving an entrance and exit wound. Guay testified that he did not remove the gun from the holster. Rather, he described the gun firing when he grabbed the holster to remove the holster from his belt. Guay claimed that he had not pulled the trigger—even accidentally. In shock and on the floor, Guay telephoned his longtime partner, Jacquelyn O’Leary, who called 911. Two Hillsboro police officers—Officer William Bannister and Sergeant Nicholas Hodgen—arrived soon after, and Guay told them what happened. Guay said that he did not touch the trigger on the P320, and the gun was still fully in the

holster when it accidentally fired. What Guay told the officers was consistent with his testimony at trial. While in Guay’s home, the officers saw that the holster had exploded into pieces; a larger fragment of it was still attached to Guay’s pants, and other pieces were strewn about in the area. An EMT arrived and helped get Guay into an ambulance.1 At the hospital, medical staff washed his wound with a saline solution, and then “packed it” with gauze. Guay was discharged the next day.

After being released from the hospital, Guay was out of work for three weeks. His pain continued, and he would sometimes feel a vibrating, burning sensation in his leg. He had trouble sleeping and would wake up in the middle of the night with night terrors. He described the night terrors as seeing “demons coming out of my legs” and sometimes seeing “weird-monster”-like-flowers, growing out of his legs. He would wake up drenched in sweat. To this day, he still takes sleeping medication to cope with his anxiety.

The court found Guay credible in every respect. Specifically, the court credits Guay’s testimony that the gun was still fully inside the holster when it discharged. With the gun fully in the holster, Guay could not have accessed the trigger; it would have been impossible for him to have accidentally pulled it. Moreover, as expert testimony revealed, the P320 had a 6.7-pound trigger, meaning that to fire, the user had to exert 6.7 pounds of pressure. The court does not believe that Guay could

have applied that amount of force to the trigger inadvertently while the gun was in

1 The EMT testified that Guay told her that he accidentally shot himself in the leg when he was attempting to take his gun out of his holster. Sig Sauer made much of this inconsistency. The court does not put much weight in the EMT’s testimony on this point, because her focus at the time was on treating Guay’s gunshot wounds, not on recording the precise manner in which Guay described the gun discharging. Guay testified at trial, and told Officer Bannister shortly after the incident, that while he was attempting to take the holster off the belt on his pants, the gun was still fully in the holster. Guay never deviated from that version of events. the holster. In short, the court found Guay’s testimony about the gunshot, how it occurred, and his resulting injuries consistent and believable. The court therefore places great weight on Guay’s testimony.

III. Problems with the P320 Pistol (May 2017)

Sig Sauer began selling the P320 pistol in 2014. Sean Toner is a senior design engineer at Sig Sauer and the leader of the P320’s design team. He testified as one of Sig Sauer’s expert witnesses. Sig Sauer designed the P320 principally to market to the military and law enforcement, which looks for simple, easy-to-use, and lightweight firearms. In January 2017, Sig Sauer entered a contract with the United States Army (worth $580,000,000) to supply the Army with a new service pistol. In May 2017, the Army issued a change proposal, in which it identified various problems with the P320 and requested that Sig Sauer make several changes. Most notably, the Army had realized that when dropped at a certain angle, the P320 could accidentally fire. At trial, Toner explained that the trigger was essentially activating itself during the

drop. Because the components inside the gun have inertia, the trigger could continue falling after the gun hit the ground and, if the gun landed at a particular angle, this could effectively cause a trigger pull. In response to the Army’s concerns, Sig Sauer modified the P320’s design by, among other things, reducing the weight of the internal components to have less inertial effect. Sig Sauer also modified the commercial version of the P320, and as of August 2017, all commercial P320s manufactured by Sig Sauer were the modified version. On August 4, 2017, Sig Sauer issued a press release entitled “Sig Sauer® Reaffirms

Safety of the P320® Pistol.” It stated that there “have been zero (0) reported drop- related P320 incidents in the U.S.

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Guay v. Sig Sauer, Inc., (D.N.H. 2022).

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