Philly Jury Awards $11M to Man Shot by Own Sig Sauer Gun

The Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas jury awarded $1 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages.

A Philadelphia jury has awarded $11 million to a man who was shot when his Sig Sauer handgun spontaneously fired while holstered, in another trial setback for the gunmaker over its popular P320 pistol.

Following a three-week trial and deliberations that spanned parts of three days, the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas jury awarded $1 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages to George Abrahams, his attorneys announced Wednesday.

While Abrahams was walking down the stairs in his house in 2020, the holstered firearm suddenly went off and wounded the U.S. Army veteran in his leg, causing permanent injuries, according to the complaint.

Underpinning the hefty punitive damages award was the jury’s determination that the company exhibited a reckless indifference to others when it sold the defectively designed P320, according to Abrahams’ attorneys with Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky PC.

Abrahams’ lead counsel Robert Zimmerman said the jury came to the correct conclusion that the P320 is defective and dangerous.

“We successfully argued that Sig Sauer knew of the risks of the P320’s design, predicted these risks would injure its customers, and saw these risks play out in the real world,” he said in a statement Wednesday. “Sig Sauer knowingly and negligently compromised safety in the name of profit.”

Zimmerman noted that Abrahams’ claims were the first to go to trial in Pennsylvania for a P320 case.

A representative for Sig Sauer did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

It was the second favorable verdict for Saltz Mongeluzzi, which is handling claims made by hundreds of other P320 owners who have been injured by the weapon, which is said to not have the same safety mechanism as the versions supplied to the U.S. military.

In June, a Georgia federal jury awarded more than $2.35 million to a man who was similarly shot by a P320 without ever touching the trigger.

The suits against Sig Sauer claim it made the negligent decision to sell the gun without an external safety, despite having designed a workable safety trigger feature but choosing to scrap the design before putting the guns into production, according to Abrahams’ attorneys.

“Sig Sauer is the only gunmaker in the world to make this type of gun without a safety,” they said.

Abrahams is represented by Robert W. Zimmerman, Ryan Hurd, Larry Bendesky, and Samuel A. Haaz of Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky PC.

Sig Sauer is represented by C. Scott Toomey, Kristen E. Dennison, and Ericka A. Esposito of Littleton Park Joyce Ughetta & Kelly LLP.

The case is Abrahams v. Sig Sauer et al., case number 220601213, in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania.