Congratulations to our client Attorney Joel Grist (www.trucklawyer.com) and his colleague Lloyd Bell (www.belllawfirm.com) for their $6M dollar verdict!
The incident occurred back in 2000 when the firearm (a “Saturday night special”) discharged after falling onto a table, killing the plaintiff’s son. The mother (Linda Bullard) sued for negligence on the part of the pawn shop owner who sold her the gun. Turns out, the shop owner left a live round in the chamber after unsuccessfully trying to unjam the .380 caliber pistol. The result was disaster for this family.
The gun was purchased by Linda Bullard’s adult daughter, Tiffany Hardware, for protection. A few weeks after purchasing a friend of Ms. Hardware’s set out to fire the weapon, and it jammed. Hardware took the weapon back to the pawn shop where she purchased it and the shop owner unsuccessfully tried to clear the jam. The defendant gave the weapon back to Ms. Hardware instructing her to come back to the shop the following Monday so one of his employees could clear the jam. She placed the gun in her purse and went home. That evening when Ms. Hardware arrived home and placed her purse down on the dining room table (along with other items) the gun went off striking her 15 year old brother (Billy Bullard) in the stomach. He died in Ms. Hardware’s arms on the way to the hospital that night.
In 2002, Mr. Grist filed on behalf of Linda Bullard a wrongful death suit against multiple defendants, including the pawn shop. So much time went by on this case, $1.4 million in interest was added to the $6M award amount for the family of the deceased. (Read specific details on the case)
Congratulation to Mr. Grist and Mr. Bell for your extreme patience and tenacity on behalf of the family. The victory you and Mr. Bell orchestrated for the family will never bring back Billy, but the delivery of justice will no doubt bring peace to the family so many years later. We are proud to have Mr. Grist as one of our valued clients.
Vice President – Business Development