The family of state Corrections Lt. Fred House has settled a wrongful-death lawsuit against the manufacturer of his bullet-resistant vest.
Eleven years after House was shot to death and six days after the trial began, Ann House and her three children agreed Wednesday to settle with the vestmaker, Armour of America Inc. of Los Angeles, for an undisclosed amount.The trial will continue against Lawco Police Supply, the now-defunct Utah company that sold the Department of Corrections the vest House was wearing when he was shot in a standoff with a polygamous clan.
The settlement drops the family's claims that Armour did not warn the Corrections Department about the vest's limitations, specifically that it would not stop rifle fire.
"We are very pleased with the settlement," said Armour attorney Paul Felt. "It takes all the product claims that the vest was defective out of the case."
For Ann House, 44, the agreement is bittersweet.
"By settling, I don't know if there's really that element of the truth getting out, of justice being served," she said Wednesday. "But I guess you work with the system as it is."
Though House said she is glad the body-armor industry is tightening standards, she said "it's a tragedy that it takes things like this to make changes."
Fred House was a dog handler and a member of the Corrections Department SWAT team when he was shot on Jan. 28, 1988, following a 13-day siege of the polygamous Singer-Swapp clan's farm near Marion, about 40 miles east of Salt Lake City.
House wore a Kevlar vest with a ceramic chest plate insert to protect from rifle fire. The fatal bullet, fired from a .30-caliber rifle by Timothy Singer, grazed the non-ceramic edge of the plate, pierced the soft armor Kevlar and tore House's aorta.
The vest label says it will resist various handgun rounds but makes no mention of rifles with the exception of shotguns.
The plaintiffs contend the Corrections Department, which bought 10 vests from Lawco and Armour in 1981, meant House to have the best vest available and instead received the second best from Lawco.
Armour of America and Lawco argue no vest can stop all rounds, and House was keenly aware of those limitations as a skilled SWAT team member and weapons instructor. They also contend the labeling on the vest was sufficient.
On Wednesday Lawco attorney Tim Dunn asked 3rd District Court Judge Judith Atherton to dismiss the remaining breach of warranty claim against his client. The family's lawyers say Lawco promised the best vest and instead delivered the second-best.
Atherton was expected to rule on the motion Thursday. The trial is scheduled through Friday.