The Shooter’s Log has previously covered a suit in which U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch of Denver found that the plaintiffs and lawyers who sued Sportsman’s Guide and Lucky Gunner LLC for selling supplies to convicted Aurora movie-theater shooter James Holmes, should pay the companies’ legal fees in the family’s unsuccessful civil suit against the firearms firms.
Now the same judge has actually totaled up those legal fees, determined their reasonableness, and issued an order for the plaintiffs to pay various amounts. The named plaintiffs are Sandy Phillips and Lonnie Phillips, and by association, the Brady Center, according to the judge.
Judge Matsch added, “The named plaintiffs have active roles in the Brady Center as shown in the attachments to LuckyGunner’s reply and in press releases from the Brady Center heralding the filing of their lawsuit and identifying three of its lawyers as representing the plaintiffs. Two of those attorneys attended oral argument on the defendants’ motions and signed pleadings filed on behalf of the plaintiffs by the attorneys from Arnold & Porter.” In addition, Matsch added, “Those who ignite a fire should be responsible for the cost of suppressing it before it becomes a conflagration. The Brady Center may be pursuing a righteous cause, but the defendants should not have to bear the burden of defending themselves in this inappropriate forum.” From the order, filed June 17, 2015: Defendant LuckyGunner, d/b/a/ Bulkammo.com is awarded the amount of $111,971.10 for its fees and costs of defending this action, and it is FURTHER ORDERED that The Sportsman’s Guide’s motion for fees and costs is granted. Defendant The Sportsman’s Guide is awarded the amount of $59,060.87 for its fees and costs of defending this action, and it is Further ORDERED that Defendant Platt’s amended motion for attorneys fees [#55] is granted. Defendant Brian Platt d/b/a BTP Arms is awarded the amount of $31,969.89 for his fees and costs of defending this action. After the order, Lucky Gunner released a statement: The Brady Center recently organized a lawsuit against us. Their stated goal was to put us out of business, and we believe, to outlaw the sale of ammunition online by judicial decree. After several months of spending our own money defending the lawsuit, it was dismissed and the judge awarded us $111,971.10 as a partial reimbursement for our legal fees. We’re a small team of hardworking people, and we took the Brady Center’s assault against us and the 2nd Amendment very seriously. So far, we’ve spent more than $150,000 of our own money to hire the best attorneys we could find. Our goal was to protect our livelihood and to protect the 2nd Amendment rights of Americans to responsibly buy and sell ammunition online. We believe this lawsuit was just one step in the direction of sidestepping Congress and outlawing the sale of ammunition online. As stated by the judge in his ruling: “It is apparent that this case was filed to pursue the political purposes of the Brady Center and, given the failure to present any cognizable legal claim, bringing these defendants [Lucky Gunner] into the Colorado court… appears to be more of an opportunity to propagandize the public and stigmatize the defendants than to obtain a court order.” The Brady Center predictably appealed the judge’s ruling and we are prepared to continue defending your rights and ours. While it is not yet clear when the $111,971.10 fee reimbursement will be paid, we are going to donate 100% of what is recovered to groups that support and defend the 2nd Amendment. We will fight to recover these funds from the Brady Center and to hold the Brady Center responsible for yet another frivolous lawsuit. The company said in its statement that it will cut checks to each organization receiving votes on a percentage basis. In other words, if “Organization A” gets 5% of the vote, it will receive 5% of whatever is recovered.
If you want to have a voice in who gets the money Lucky Gunner has pledged, visit its website. Voting ends on August 1, 2015.
Will Brady Center ever pay any legal fees in this case? Tell us your forecast in the comments section below.
[This post was updated July 19 to change the status of James Holmes from “alleged” shooter to “convicted” shooter. More information on his trial is here. H/T to davud for pointing that out. — Woody]
The families of the Aurora movie theater victims should be suing the people who printed the “Gun Free Zone” signs, and they should be suing the movie theater people who posted them. The printers and posters of those signs were actively and negligently aiding and abetting any random person who was wandering around looking for people to shoot. Since the sign printers and sign posters materially aided and abetted mass murder in fact and in deed, as such they should be held civilly liable for millions of dollars. And, they should be locked up for their contributory criminal liability as well. If we can’t have phone booths anymore because somebody “maybe possibly might” not be able to flee a phone booth when a careening car is headed their way, we can’t have “gun free zone” signs when the people thereby affected cannot flee from an aspiring mass murderer headed their way. If a person can’t shout “fire” in a crowded movie theater, audience members shouldn’t be required to shout “I’m disarmed, fire at me.”
I recently recommended to the Seattle City Council spokesperson (Gun & Ammo Tax) that the Dr. Shrinks are at fault for not diagnosing the crazies fast enough and getting them into Loony Bins BEFORE they hurt innocent people. Guns, knives, tire irons, broken beer bottles are all inanimate object that by themselves alone are not capable of causing injury.
I am so glad to see a judge finally get the people who are trying to take our rights away as well as the 2nd amendment, I think if they lose they should pay all the legal fees, that is the Plaintiffs. If we don’t stand for are rights we will be on our knees as slaves. The Governments is trying to do just that, trampling all over the Constitution and our Bill of Rights.
time to update this post. holmes was convicted july 16, no need to refer to him as an ‘alleged’ ‘shooter anymore.
Finally some true justice in the law, our legal system should do that in other fribleless law suites and hold accountable the actions of individuals and not the tools they used.
They will pay. There is a federal court order and the question is how quickly. Judges expect their orders to be followed promptly and completely. They have the income so it will get paid and if not the former defendants can always move to has the organizations assets seized and auctioned to pay the judgement.
Guidestar sugests they will have no problem paying the costs: https://www.guidestar.org/organizations/23-7321017/brady-campaign-prevent-gun-violence.aspx
Could they be considered in contempt of court if they don’t pay? It would be wonderful to see these folks (especially the heads of Brady) in jail until payment is made.
I think I would wet myself in glee just to see them do the “Perp Walk” !
Has no one thought to counter sue the Brady Bunch for instigating a frivolous law suite? In addition I think a knowledgeable lawyer could come up with all kinds of charges such as loss of business, punitive damages, demeaning law abiding company, in the eyes of the public, that was engaged in lawful commerce. The list could be endless.
Brady Campaign want to hurt lawful companies and lawful commerce by going for their wallets and I think turn about is fair play. It would be nice to put this gun grabbing group out of business by bankrupting them.
Sooo true. This tactic should have been used years ago
Excellent idea!!!
The reason these groups have so much money is because they are given money by the likes of NWO members like Soros. Anything to bring down America and its people. The worst thing is these idiots don’t understand they are being used.
“No man survives when freedom fails, the best men rot in filthy jails, and those who cry appease, appease are hanged by those they tried to please.”
Hiram Mann, first governor California
I’m with Mike. They are getting my business as well !! I can use a few thousand extra rounds of assorted ammunition. Fight the good fight and support those who fight it with us. Your business will show your appreciation and thanks. Even if you can only afford a few rounds it still all helps.
Liberal groups like the Brady Bunch never take responsibility for anything they do. They try to paint this as the NRA’s fault and delay payment for years. Individual responsibility for your own actions is a concept that is absolutely foreign to the Liberal mindset. To them, everything is always someone elses fault.
Regardless of the outcome, the ‘Gun Grabbers’ will always have more money than will 2nd Amendment supporters. How many times have they (the gun grabbers) been slapped down in court and been forced to pay enormous amounts of money, yet the persist, in spite of these losses. They are single-minded in their pursuit of disarming America.Too, you can believe it or not, they have international supporters, with their own reasons for disarming, just not America, but the world, that pours millions of dollars into anti-gun campaigns. Thank The Eternal, I do not have to struggle with this issue. I expatriated myself sometime ago, and though I still love the land of my birth, I now reside in a country that does not restrict private gun ownership. Until something drastic is done to rid the U.S. Government of these haters of freedom, I will remain here. Before any say that I should return because my vote is needed, I did my patriotic duty and voted, to little or no avail when those in power cheat and lie at every turn to remain in power.
The antigunners also control the media. They constantly spew false info that the NRA is the largest lobby group pushing congress….while Bloomberg spends more by himself than the entire NRA lobby.
Be skeptical of EVERYTHING you read in the media.
I think Lucky Gunner has earned some business from me. Recovering over $100K and promising that to gun rights groups is generous indeed.
I figure, if not already, they will probably set up a “GoFundMe” crowd-funding solution and have other bleeding heart liberals donate their way out of this. Regardless, I truly hope this loss as well as the court order to pay the winning side’s attorney fees will resonate for a while and help stave off other frivolous suites for a time.