Settlement follows jury verdict in body armor case.

The family of a police officer who was killed in the line of duty--when he was shot 13 times and one of the bullets pierced his bulletproof vest--recently agreed to settle a lawsuit filed against the makers of the vest. (Zeppetella v. Second Chance Body Armor, Inc., No. GIN 034151 (Cal., San Diego Co. Super. settled Nov. 7, 2006).) The settlement followed a jury verdict against the defendants in September.

Tony Zeppetella, a cop in Oceanside, California, was killed in 2003. His wife, Jamie, sued Michigan-based Second Chance Body Armor, Inc., which made the vest, and Japan-based Toyobo Co., which made the fiber used in the vest. (See Sara Hoffman Jurand, Zylon Body Armor Fails to Protect and Serve Police, Lawsuits Claim, TRIAL 14 (Mar. 2005).) Second Chance Body Armor, Inc., has since changed its name to SCBA Liquidation, Inc.

Because the case was settled after the trial, the verdict will not be entered as a judgment against the defendant companies.

"Jamie decided to settle the case so that she could avoid the lengthy appeals process," said her lawyer, Gregory Emerson of Los Angeles. "She has since started the Tony W. Zeppetella Memorial Foundation and wanted to move forward with her life. The settlement represented 95 percent of what the jury awarded, so she did not give up much in order to obtain resolution."

The settlement was finalized on November 7, when the court approved the allocation of settlement funds to the Zeppetellas' three-year-old son, Jakob.

The Zeppetella case "changed the way that body armor is manufactured, tested, and sold," Emerson said. "It is also significant because it raised legitimate concerns about a defective product, Zylon, that resulted in the recall of over 250,000 bulletproof vests and, eventually, decertification by the National Institute of Justice of all vests containing any amount of Zylon."

Several police departments and state attorneys general also filed lawsuits against Second Chance and Toyobo, claiming that Second Chance knew as early as 2001 that Zylon degrades. The company removed its Zylon-based vests from the market in 2003 and recommended in 2005 that officers replace any of its vests that contain Zylon fiber.

Arkansas is among the states that sued both companies. Its case is on hold because SCBA Liquidation filed for bankruptcy protection in 2004, but the state has filed a claim with the bankruptcy court to recover a share of the company's assets, said Matt DeCample, a spokesman for the Arkansas attorney general's office.

DeCample also noted that four Arkansas police agencies received 94 percent of what they paid for the vests through a nationwide class action settlement. (Lemmings v. Second Chance Body Armor, Inc., No. CJ-2004-62 (Okla., Mayes Co. Dist. Sept. 23, 2005); see Sara Hoffman Jurand, New Recall, Settlement over Bulletproof Vests, TRIAL 86 (Sept. 2005).)

"Police officers and members of the military are much safer now because they are not wearing Zylon vests," Emerson said, adding that the former Second Chance executives who "are responsible for the defective vests are presently being investigated by the federal government and may soon be indicted."

The Justice Department filed suit against the companies in 2005, alleging that "the defendants knew, within the meaning of the [False Claims Act], that the Zylon body armor was defective and that the Zylon fabric of which the body armor was made degraded substantially more quickly (and thus provided less protection to the wearer) than defendants had represented, warranted, and/or were required by the contract specifications." That case is pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. (United States v. Second Chance Body Armor, Inc., No. 1:04-cv-00280 (D.D.C. filed July 1, 2005).)