Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
Plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the manufacturer and distributors of the high-capacity magazine used in the 2021 FedEx shooting in Indianapolis are asking a federal judge to consolidate their case with a similar complaint stemming from the deadly shooting.
Victims and family members of victims from the shooting filed their lawsuit — Gurinder Singh Bains, et al. v. American Tactical Inc., et al., 6:23-cv-06208 — in April in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York.
Now they’re seeking to consolidate the case with Johal, et al., v. American Tactical, Inc., et al., 6:23-cv-6382.
The Jahal case was originally filed April 14 — one day after Bains — in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana. It has since been transferred to the New York Western District Court.
According to a memorandum in support of consolidation filed July 17, both cases present identical factual and legal issues.
Plaintiffs are also requesting leave to file a consolidated amended complaint, in part because the plaintiffs say they believe that will be necessary to effect service on one of the defendants, Schmeisser GmbH, the German manufacturer of the magazine.
According to the memorandum, shortly after filing the complaint, plaintiffs were advised that some German states, including the one in which Schmeisser is located, had been rejecting service via the Hauge Convention if the German state interprets the complaint to contain language that has the potential for the plaintiffs to recover money subject to a split-recovery statute.
Both the Bains and Johal actions contain identical claims brought under the Indiana state public nuisance statute with a split-recover remedy, which the memorandum says is likely to result in rejection by the German state.
The amended complaint, included as an exhibit to the memorandum, withdraws the nuisance split-recovery statutory claim only for Schmeisser.
The proposed 50-count lawsuit also includes claims of negligence and wrongful death.
Other defendants include American Tactical, the distributor of the 60-round magazine the gunman used, and 365 Plus, the global distributor of the magazine.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.