Summary Judgment for Sportsman’s Outfitter & Marine, Inc. in wrongful death action

Plaintiffs filed a wrongful death action for the death of Philip Taylor who drowned at Thomas Hill Lake on June 4, 2010 while fishing in a 1997 Bass Tender boat. Plaintiffs sued the manufacturer of the boat and Sportsman’s Outfitter & Marine, Inc., a boat dealership that sold the boat alleging that the boat seat was defective. The manufacturer of the boat had dissolved several years prior to the filing of the lawsuit and was dismissed by plaintiffs. Sportsman’s was left to defend negligence and strict liability product defect and failure to warn claims by plaintiffs as the sole defendant. John Schultz, Pamela Welch and Morgan Wallace co-authored the Motion for Summary Judgment and Pamela Welch argued the Motion before the Circuit Court of Macon County, Missouri. The Court granted summary judgment in favor of Sportsman’s finding that there was insufficient evidence that the injury-causing defect existed at the time the boat was sold in 1997 and that there was no evidence that Sportsman’s had knowledge of any alleged defect.