Remington Defective Trigger Settlement Submitted for Final Approval

Parties to a long-fought Remington defective trigger class action lawsuit are seeking final court approval of a settlement agreement.

At the core of the litigation is the company’s Walker trigger mechanism, a firearm component based on a decades-old design. Plaintiffs allege the trigger connector in the Walker mechanism is defective in a way that can cause inadvertent discharge.

According to Remington’s court filings, the Remington defective trigger class action settlement will cover upwards of 7 million individual firearms.

Qualifying owners of Remington rifles that use an allegedly defective trigger connector will be eligible to have those rifles retrofitted with the newer X-Mark Pro trigger mechanism at no cost to them.

Owners who have already had their Walker mechanism replaced with an X-Mark Pro can seek partial or full reimbursement of the replacement cost.

Owners of much older rifles that can’t be readily retrofitted are eligible for an educational DVD covering safe firearm handling practices and a voucher code good for discounts on products available through Remington’s online store.

Some rifles that were originally manufactured with an X-Mark Pro mechanism were subject to a recall in April 2014. The settlement provides those rifle owners with a choice of participating in either that recall or the current Remington defective trigger class action settlement.

This Remington defective trigger class action settlement is the final product of three years of litigation and related negotiations. Litigation began with four separate putative class action lawsuits filed in 2012 and 2013. Two of those actions were voluntarily dismissed before the end of 2013.

The Walker trigger mechanism was built into the company’s Model 700 rifles manufactured from 1948 to 2006. Plaintiffs alleged the Walker mechanism was built with a defectively-designed trigger connector that could result in accidental discharge without the trigger being pulled.

The supposed Remington defective trigger mechanism led to misfires, causing injury and death, the plaintiffs claimed. They also said the Remington defective trigger mechanism lowered the value of their Remington rifles, causing them to suffer economic harm.

Remington continues to insist that the trigger connector in the Walker trigger mechanism is neither defective nor unsafe. The company claims that in testing related to other litigation, firearm experts have been unable to duplicate the alleged accidental discharges without purposely pulling the rifle’s trigger.

Remington attributes the alleged accidental discharges to other factors like improper alterations, poor maintenance, inadvertent trigger pulls, and failure to use basic firearm safety practices.

Nevertheless, the company says, it has agreed to the current settlement to avoid the extraordinary costs and uncertainties associated with further litigation.

Parties announced commencement of settlement negotiations in July 2014, expecting to have details of a settlement agreement ironed out by the next October. In December 2014, the parties submitted their first draft of a settlement for preliminary court approval.

Class Members who may be eligible to participate in the settlement include owners of Remington Model 700, Seven, Sportsman 78, 673, 710, 715, 770, 600, 660, XP-100, 721, 722 and 725 that contain a trigger mechanism that uses a trigger connector.

The settlement also applies to owners of Remington Model 700 and Model Seven rifles that have an X-Mark Pro trigger mechanism manufactured between May 1, 2006 and Apr. 9, 2014.

Owners of Remington Model 700 and Seven rifles who replaced their Walker trigger mechanisms with an X-Mark Pro mechanism at their own expense may also participate.

The plaintiffs are represented by Richard Ramler of Ramler Law Office PC, Jordan L. Chaikin of Parker Waichman LLP, Richard Arsenault of Neblett Beard & Arsenault, Jon D. Robinson and Christopher Ellis of Bolen Robinson & Ellis LLP, Charles E. Schaffer of Levin Fishbein Sedran & Berman, Eric Holland of Holland Law Firm, Timothy Monsees of Monsees Mayer, John Climaco of Climaco Law Firm and Mark Lanier of Lanier Law Firm.

The Remington Defective Trigger Class Action Settlement is Ian Pollard, et al. v. Remington Arms Company LLC, et al., Case No. 4:13-cv-00086-ODS, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri.