Wagner v. Weatherby, Inc.
- Jerry Blackwell
- 0:20-cv-02287
- U.S. District Court · District of Minnesota
- 2
In Wagner v. Weatherby, Judge Blackwell granted in part and denied in part summary judgment, dismissing express warranty claim while allowing negligence and strict-liability claims to proceed.
Stanley Wagner’s negligence and strict-liability claims remain in the case, while his express warranty claim was dismissed; Weatherby, Inc. did not obtain summary judgment on the remaining issues.
What happened
In Wagner v. Weatherby, Stanley Wagner sued Weatherby, Inc. after he was injured when a shotgun fired while its safety was engaged during a hunting trip. He claimed the shotgun was defective and unreasonably dangerous, asserting negligence, breach of express warranty, and strict liability.
Weatherby asked the court to enter judgment without a trial. The parties presented conflicting expert opinions about whether the shotgun had a defect in its internal firing mechanism when Weatherby controlled it. Weatherby also argued that Wagner had accepted the risk of injury because he knew about a separate “doubling” malfunction.
The court granted in part and denied in part Weatherby’s motion. It dismissed Wagner’s express warranty claim because he was no longer pursuing it, but otherwise denied the motion, including as to the strict-liability claim and the assumption-of-risk argument. Judge Blackwell issued the order.
The detailed version
- Wagner v. Weatherby, Inc. · No. 0:20-cv-02287
- Jerry W. Blackwell
- Apr. 4, 2023
Background
Stanley Wagner alleged that he suffered a shotgun blast to his face when he fell during a hunting trip, even though the shotgun’s safety was engaged. He sued the manufacturer and seller, Weatherby, Inc., alleging negligence, breach of express warranty, and strict liability. He claimed that the shotgun was defective and unreasonably dangerous when it was manufactured and sold.
Weatherby moved for summary judgment. Summary judgment is a decision without a trial that is appropriate when there is no genuine dispute about a fact that could affect the result and the moving party is legally entitled to judgment. The court considered the evidence in the light most favorable to Wagner, the party opposing the motion.
Strict Liability
The court stated that a plaintiff bringing a strict-liability claim must prove that the defendant’s product was a direct legal cause of the injury. The parties offered conflicting positions, each supported by expert testimony, about whether a defect in the shotgun’s internal firing mechanism existed when the gun left Weatherby’s control. Viewing that evidence in Wagner’s favor, the court denied summary judgment on the strict-liability claim.
Assumption of Risk
Weatherby also argued that Wagner had assumed the risk of injury because he knew about the shotgun’s “doubling” malfunction. The court explained that assumption of risk requires actual knowledge of the relevant risk and is generally a question for a jury. It distinguished the known doubling malfunction from risks involving the shotgun’s safety features. A jury could find that, based on Wagner’s knowledge at the time, being shot when he fell while the safety was engaged was neither apparent nor foreseeable. The court therefore denied summary judgment on Weatherby’s primary-assumption-of-risk argument.
Disposition
The court ordered that Weatherby’s motion for summary judgment was granted in part and denied in part. Wagner’s express warranty claim was dismissed because he confirmed that he was no longer pursuing it. The motion was otherwise denied. Judge Jerry W. Blackwell signed the order.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.