Patent ID: 8657348

Claim:
A latch assembly, comprising: a chassis; a latch bolt, movably mounted on the chassis and having a closed position for retaining a striker, an open position for releasing the striker; and a first safety position between the closed position and the open position for retaining the striker; a first pawl having a first pawl engaged position at which the first pawl is engageable with the latch bolt to hold the latch bolt in the closed position and a first pawl disengaged position at which the first pawl is disengaged from the latch bolt thereby allowing the latch bolt to at least move towards the first safety position; a second pawl having a second pawl engaged position at which the second pawl is engageable with the latch bolt to hold the latch bolt in the first safety position and a second pawl disengaged position at which the second pawl is disengaged from the latch bolt thereby allowing the latch bolt to move towards the open position; an eccentric arrangement defining an eccentric axis and a first pawl axis spaced from the eccentric axis, with the eccentric arrangement being rotatable about the eccentric axis and with the first pawl being rotatable about the first pawl axis; wherein as the first pawl moves from the first pawl engaged position to the first pawl disengaged position the eccentric arrangement rotates about the eccentric axis to move the first pawl axis from a first pawl axis position to a second pawl axis position; a retaining mechanism having a retaining position at which the first pawl axis is held at the first pawl axis position and having a non-retaining position at which the pawl axis is allowed to move to the second pawl axis position; a release lever operable to move the retaining mechanism from the retaining position to the non-retaining position when the release lever is moved from a rest position to a released position; and an auxiliary pawl engageable with the second pawl to hold the second pawl in the second pawl engaged position, the auxiliary pawl being adapted to be moved to a position that causes the second pawl to move towards the second pawl disengaged position, wherein movement of the auxiliary pawl to the position causes an abutment on the auxiliary pawl to move the second pawl to the second pawl disengaged position.