Opinion ID: 852959
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Duty of a Custodian of a Gun to Exercise Care

Text: The elements of a negligence action have long been recited by courts in Indiana and elsewhere as duty, breach, causation and harm. Estate of Heck v. Stoffer, 786 N.E.2d 265, 268 (Ind.2003). The Court of Appeals, following Webb v. Jarvis, 575 N.E.2d 992 (Ind.1991), viewed the duty issue in terms of the balance of foreseeability, public policy, and the relationship between the parties. Where a duty is already recognized it is to be followed, and we need not turn to a balancing test of factors to determine whether a duty exists. N. Ind. Pub. Serv. Co. v. Sharp, 790 N.E.2d 462, 465 (Ind.2003). Here precedent has established that a custodian of firearms owes a duty to act with reasonable care to see that the weapons do not fall into the hands of people known to be dangerous. As we stated in Estate of Heck, [t]he care required is always reasonable care. This standard never varies, but the care which it is reasonable to require of the actor varies with the danger involved in his act, and is proportionate to it. The greater the danger, the greater the care which must be exercised. 786 N.E.2d 265 at 270 (citing Restatement (Second) of Torts § 298). Estate of Heck recognized a duty on the part of an owner of a gun to exercise reasonable care to prevent the weapon from falling into hands known to be dangerous. This same duty applies to the defendants. Each defendant is a custodian and owner of the weapon at the times that defendant possesses it in the chain of distribution. To the extent the defendants argue any injury to the City to be remote from any unlawful sale, that raises the issue of proximate cause discussed in Part II.B.2, but does not negate the existence of a duty on the part of the defendants to act reasonably to avoid injury to anyone, including the City, who is reasonably foreseeably harmed. Defendants point to legislation regulating the distribution of firearms and argue that compliance with these statutes is sufficient to immunize them from liability. But these same statutes also provide that firearms are not to be available to certain classes of people. Specifically, Indiana Code section 35-47-2-7 prohibits the sale or transfer of ownership of a handgun to a minor, a convicted felon, a drug abuser, an alcohol abuser or a mentally incompetent person. These prohibitions obviously reflect a concern that weapons in the hands of these persons constitute a danger to the public. These are the very groups that the City alleges the defendants knowingly facilitated in their efforts to obtain firearms. We think it clear that these statutes impose on everyone in the chain of distribution a duty not to facilitate ownership of a handgun by one of the identified classes.