Sandy Hook families: Gun maker trying to wipe out lawsuit

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A lawyer for some of the Sandy Hook school shooting victims' families accused Remington Arms on Tuesday of using its new bankruptcy case to try to wipe out their lawsuit over how the company marketed the rifle used in the massacre.

An attorney for Remington denied the allegation during a phone conference call presided over by a federal bankruptcy court judge in Decatur, Alabama.

Also Tuesday, the judge, Clifton Jessup Jr., denied the families' request to create a committee — comprised of people who are suing Remington over the use of its products — that would have a say in the bankruptcy proceedings. The judge, however, allowed one lawsuit plaintiff — not the Sandy Hook families — to sit on the main committee of unsecured creditors.

David Elsberg, a lawyer for the families, said Remington is trying to rush an auction of its holdings, leave the families out of the process and has not included their lawsuit or other lawsuits over its products in the new bankruptcy case it filed late last month. He said the bankruptcy case is so new that many people who may have claims against the company may not even know about the case.

“The families have grave concerns about the speed, the breakneck speed, that the debtors (Remington) are setting up for the sale,” Elsberg said. “There won’t be, there simply can’t be, a full and fair process unless this high-speed train that we’re on slows down.”

Despite the bankruptcy case being filed only last month, Remington — the nation's oldest gun maker, based in Madison, North Carolina — already is planning to sell off its holdings in a Sept. 17 auction. The company has a plant in Huntsville, Alabama.

It's the company's second bankruptcy filing in two years. Remington, weighed down by lawsuits...