## Facts

- Two twelve-year-old cousins, Albert H. Kuhns, Jr. and George H. Brugger, were visiting their grandfather, George Bach, at his summer cottage.
- Bach kept a loaded automatic pistol in an unlocked dresser drawer in an unlocked bedroom that was accessible to family members, including grandchildren who were accustomed to entering the room.
- Bach had previously shown the pistol to Brugger, who knew where it was kept.
- In Bach’s absence, the two boys entered the bedroom; Brugger opened the drawer, removed the pistol, handled it, and it discharged, striking Kuhns in the spinal cord.
- Kuhns suffered permanent paralysis from the waist down.
- Kuhns sued Brugger and Bach (through Bach’s estate) for negligence; the jury found both defendants negligent and returned a verdict for Kuhns.
- Defendants sought judgment notwithstanding the verdict, arguing insufficient evidence, improper reliance on firearm statutes, and that Brugger’s act was a superseding cause as to Bach.

## Issues

1. Whether a twelve-year-old who handles a loaded pistol in close proximity to another child may be found negligent when the gun discharges unintentionally.
2. Whether an adult who keeps a loaded pistol unlocked and accessible to children, with knowledge a child knows its location, may be found negligent and a legal cause of injuries from a child’s discharge of the weapon.
3. Whether violations of firearm safety statutes aimed at restricting minors’ access to or use of firearms may support negligence per se.
4. Whether the child’s handling and discharge of the pistol constitutes a superseding, intervening cause relieving the adult of liability.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania affirmed the judgment for the plaintiff.
- The court held the evidence supported submitting Brugger’s negligence to the jury despite the discharge being unintentional.
- The court held the evidence supported the jury’s finding that Bach negligently kept a loaded pistol accessible to children and that this negligence was a legal cause of the injury.
- The court rejected the argument that Brugger’s conduct was a superseding cause as to Bach because the child’s access and mishandling were foreseeable.
- The court approved the use of safety statutes regulating minors and firearms as capable of supplying a negligence-per-se standard where applicable.

## Legal Principles

- A loaded firearm is a highly dangerous instrumentality; its possession or use requires extraordinary care, and accidental discharge may still result in liability if not unavoidable.
- When a person picks up a firearm and manipulates its firing mechanism in a manner that leads to discharge and injury, the evidence can establish a prima facie case of negligence for the factfinder.
- A minor may be liable in negligence, judged by the conduct of a reasonably careful child of like age, intelligence, and experience; obvious dangers may be found appreciable even at age twelve.
- An adult may be liable for negligent storage of a loaded gun where children have access and the risk that a child will handle and discharge the weapon is foreseeable.
- Foreseeable intervening acts by a child with an accessible firearm do not constitute a superseding cause breaking proximate causation.
- Violation of a safety statute designed to protect a defined class from the type of harm that occurred may constitute negligence per se, leaving causation and damages for the jury.

## Conclusion

The court upheld the jury’s verdict imposing liability on both the child who handled and discharged a loaded pistol and the grandfather’s estate for keeping the loaded weapon unsecured and accessible to children, concluding that the child’s conduct was foreseeable and did not sever causation, and that firearm safety statutes could support negligence per se.


Kuhns v. Brugger, 135 A.2d 395 (Pa. 1957)