Hamilton v. Beretta U.S.A. Corp.
New York Court of Appeals
750 N.E.2d 1055 (2001)
Families of gun-violence victims (plaintiffs) sued several handgun manufacturers (defendants), claiming the manufacturers negligently distributed guns in a way that fed an illegal market reaching minors and criminals, including the shooters who killed their relatives. The families proceeded on a market-share theory since they could not identify which manufacturer made the specific gun used in each shooting. A jury found some manufacturers failed to use reasonable care in distribution and that this proximately caused some deaths. The district court denied the manufacturers' motion for judgment as a matter of law, reasoning they had a duty to take reasonable point-of-sale precautions. The manufacturers appealed.
Whether a defendant has a duty to control a third party's tortious conduct in order to prevent that third party from harming others.