A Philadelphia jury this week found that a design flaw in SIG Sauer’s P320 pistol was responsible for an accidental discharge that injured a Philadelphia man, awarding him $11 million.

George Abrahams was injured in his Northwest Philadelphia home in June 2020 when his P320 pistol discharged while holstered in his pocket, according to court records. The bullet pierced Abrahams’ right thigh and exited above his right knee, causing nerve damage that caused lasting pain.

“I was so shocked I couldn’t even scream” the Army veteran and painting contractor told The Inquirer in 2022.

That year, he sued the New Hampshire gunmaker in the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia, alleging that the gun’s design made it virtually inevitable that the gun would fire at some point without someone pulling the trigger.

SIG Sauer did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a public statement, the company said it plans to appeal.

“We strongly disagree with the verdict in this accidental discharge lawsuit,” the gunmaker said in a statement.

” READ MORE: What happened when a SEPTA officer’s gun went off spontaneously in a suburban Philly station

Abrahams is one of 100 people represented by Saltz in Philadelphia Mongeluzzi & Bendesky firm in P320 product liability cases, which also include a local U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who was injured in an unintentional discharge.

The P320 has a checkered history accidental downloads. At least 80 people were injured by what were said to be accidental P320 firings between 2016 and 2023, according to a 2023 investigation by the Washington Post and The Trace. SEPTA stopped using the P320 after the weapon carried by one of its officers spontaneously shot in Suburban Station in 2019.

The problem with the gun is that it doesn’t include any external safety mechanism, said Robert Zimmerman, Saltz. Mongeluzzi & Bendesky attorney representing Abrahams. And the P320’s trigger is one of the most sensitive on the market, requiring less than a quarter inch of movement to activate the firearm.

“They knew of that danger, they knew of ways to mitigate or prevent that risk together,” Zimmerman said. “But they put their own customers, who are police officers and law-abiding citizens, at risk.”

In court filings, SIG Sauer denied that the gun could fire without the trigger being pulled.

“SIG further responds that in all instances where there is a claim, a P320 pistol was discharged without the trigger being pulled, the trigger was inadvertently pulled by the user’s finger or a foreign object,” the company said in legal filings.

The jury found that the SIG Saur gun was defective and awarded Abrahams $1 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages, intended to punish the company for “reckless indifference” to product safety.

The verdict is the second won against SIG Saur by the Philly law firm. A federal jury in Georgia struck the gun maker with a $2.3 million verdict in June. And Zimmerman said more lawsuits are pending.

“SIG Saur said this gun won’t fire unless you want it to…but they knew it would. And then they’ve seen it happen in the real world countless times,” the lawyer said.