"Sandy Hook Plaintiffs’ Path to Trial Seen as Uphill", 23 Jan 2017

As the Connecticut Supreme Court is expected to begin later this year to hear an appeal from several families whose loved ones were killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre..., legal experts...say the plaintiffs have a long, uphill battle.  The primary hurdle can only be cleared if the state’s high court rules that gun manufacturers bear responsibility under the theory of “negligent entrustment.”  Such a ruling would require the court to overrule Fairfield District Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis...Many legal experts...say many factors will need to fall into place in this first-impression case facing the high court for plaintiffs to prevail...Sachin S. Pandya, professor of law at the University of Connecticut Law School in Hartford, said the plaintiffs attorney...“are using negligent entrustment in a nontypical fashion. They are asking the court to innovate.”...If the plaintiffs are to win in the Connecticut Supreme Court, the court will not have to only overrule Bellis and find negligent entrustment applicable, but must also square such a finding with...a federal law passed in 2005...