Patent ID: 8740263

Claim:
A latch assembly having a chassis; a latch bolt, movably mounted on the chassis and having a closed position for retaining a striker and an open position for releasing the striker; a pawl having an engaged position at which the pawl is engaged with the latch bolt to hold the latch bolt in the closed position and a disengaged position at which the pawl is disengaged from the latch bolt thereby allowing the latch bolt to move to the open position; a crank shaft having a lug movably received within an opening of the pawl to define a pawl axis about which the pawl rotates, the crank shaft being rotatable about a crank shaft axis; wherein the pawl moves from the engaged position to the disengaged position as the crank shaft rotates about the crank shaft axis to move the pawl axis from a first pawl axis position to a second pawl axis position; a secondary pawl movable between a retaining position wherein the pawl axis is held in the first pawl axis position and a non-retaining position wherein the pawl axis is allowed to move to the second pawl axis position, the second pawl axis position being different from the first pawl axis position; a release lever operable to move the secondary pawl from the retaining position to the non-retaining position when the release lever is moved from a rest position to a released position; wherein movement of the release lever from the released position to the rest position causes the pawl axis to move from the second pawl axis position to the first pawl axis position; wherein movement of the pawl axis from the second pawl axis position to the first pawl axis position is not dependent upon the position of the latch bolt; and wherein a crank shaft lever is fixedly secured to the crank shaft and the release lever is operably coupled to crank shaft lever via a reset link operably coupled to the release lever.