Pennsylvania Judge Vacates $10 Million Penalty Against SIG SAUER, But Allows Jury Ruling of Firearm Defect to Stand
A Pennsylvania judge vacated a $10 million penalty against a firearm manufacturer stemming from a case alleging one of its pistols discharged without the trigger being pulled.
George Abrahams, a U.S. Army veteran and painting contractor in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, said that his SIG SAUER P320 went off after he’d holstered the weapon, placed it in his pocket, and went down a set of stairs. The bullet went through his right thigh, causing permanent injuries.
Abrahams sued SIG SAUER, alleging that the gun’s design made it all but inevitable that the firearm would fire without someone pulling the trigger. In November 2024, a jury awarded him $10 million in punitive damages and $1 million in compensatory damages. His legal team successfully argued in court that SIG SAUER defectively designed the P320, was negligent in selling the gun, and showed reckless indifference to the rights of others in the distribution of the pistol.
This week, however, a Philadelphia Court of Commons Pleas judge vacated the punitive damages part of the judgement. Judge Damaris Garcia did not provide reasoning for why she vacated the damages, says Robert W. Zimmerman, partner at Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky and Abrahams’ attorney. In an interview with Security Management, Zimmerman adds that the jury’s verdict finding the P320 defective is still full and final.
The jury “was incredibly thoughtful, so we believe that the punitive damages should have remained and will be appealing that portion of the decision,” Zimmerman explains. “The judge has reaffirmed that the verdict stands as being a defective product.”
SIG SAUER did not return Security Management’s request for comment on this article. But the company wrote in a statement on its website that it presented evidence of its quality control and testing process for its pistols, as well as its safety feature that eliminates the need to pull the trigger to disassemble the pistol.
“We believe Judge Damaris Garcia properly struck punitive damages in this case after review of the evidence presented at trial,” said Kristen Dennison, lead trial counsel for SIG SAUER in the Philadelphia case and a partner at Littleton, Joyce, Ughetta & Kelly, LLP, in the statement. “We are pleased to see her do the right thing in accurately applying the law to the facts.”
At the center of the case is the fact that the P320 is designed differently than firearms made by almost all other major manufacturers, Zimmerman says. It is a pre-cocked firearm that does not have any external safety mechanisms. Pre-cocked firearms are under spring tension and pulling the trigger of the firearm simply releases that pre-cocked striker to fire the gun, unlike uncocked firearms where pulling the trigger moves the striker back and then releases it to then discharge the weapon.
“The design defect is making a gun with a trigger that only needs to move 17-one hundredths of an inch and can move when the user’s hand is never even on the gun or on the trigger, and failing to include safeties to mitigate unintentional discharges,” Zimmerman adds.
SIG SAUER continues to claim that verified incidents of unintended discharges are “all attributed to improper handling, incompatible equipment (i.e. holsters), trigger access vulnerability, or a lapse in firearm safety, not to any defect in the P320,” according to a fact sheet on its dedicated website about the P320.
Abrahams is not the only plaintiff to file suit against the gun manufacturer, however. Zimmerman has also represented Brian Lang, who said he was removing a holstered P320 from his belt when it fired, injuring his leg. In June 2024, Lang won a jury verdict that the P320 was defective and SIG SAUER was negligent in its sale and distribution. The jury awarded Lang $2.3 million in compensatory damages. A Georgia federal judge upheld the verdict in February 2025.
These are just two of several lawsuits filed against the firearm manufacturer, which include roughly 20 police and law enforcement officers, the Associated Press reports. To potentially stop the manufacturer from facing lawsuits in the U.S. state of New Hampshire, where SIG SAUER is headquartered and employs 2,000 people, legislators worked to pass HB 551 in May 2025.
It shields firearm manufacturers and firearms licenses from product liability lawsuits that are based on theories of defective product design—including the absence or presence of several firearms’ safety features:
- A magazine disconnect mechanism
- A loaded chamber indicator
- Authorized user recognition technology
- An external mechanical safety, including hinged, pivoting, or tabbed trigger safety
New Hampshire State Representative Terry Roy supported passage of the law, signed by Governor Kelly Ayotte on 23 May. Roy wrote on X (formally known as Twitter) in a post that tags SIG SAUER that the law prohibits “lawsuits against our firearm manufacturers and gun dealers just because they refuse to manufacture firearms ONLY with the features wanted by anti-gun organizations. If the firearm is defective due to manufacturing, they can be sued, but not because they dare manufacture products that their customers want.”
Zimmerman says that the New Hampshire law will have no effect on the Abrahams case, or any case filed outside of that state.
“We’ve been asking SIG SAUER to change this unsafe design,” Zimmerman says. “They’re more intent on changing the law, and they found allies to give them blanket immunity. We’re still assessing if claims can be brought in that state, but it doesn’t impact cases elsewhere.”
The P320 is an extremely popular pistol in the United States. It was selected as the U.S. Army’s modular handgun system in 2017 and is used by more than 5,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide, SIG SAUER said in a fact sheet.
But while the lawsuits continue to play out, some security agencies have discontinued using the P320. The Seattle Times reports that the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission permanently banned the P320 from its training facilities in March 2025.
“The agency’s decision came after a four-month investigation prompted by an incident last year in which a police recruit’s P320 discharged while being drawn, injuring both an instructor and another recruit,” according to the Times.
The more people understand this problem, the less willing law enforcement or people in private security are trusting this weapon, Zimmerman says.
“For law enforcement or security personnel, they have to be able to rely upon, trust upon, and have confidence in their weapon,” Zimmerman explains. “If they can’t rely on their weapon, they can’t do their job as fully and as well as they need to.”
For more on firearms and safe handling, read our Security Technology series on Security Weapons Selection.
