On February 4, 1999, the City of Atlanta filed suit in the State Court of Fulton County against a number of firearms manufacturers, distributors, and trade associations to recover damages the City allegedly incurred in expenses associated with the manufacture, distribution, marketing, promotion, and sale of defective, negligently designed and unreasonably dangerous firearms. Five days later, in response to the City’s lawsuit, the Georgia General Assembly amended the firearms regulation statute, OCGA § 16-11-1841 , by reserving to the State the right to bring civil actions against firearms manufacturers, trade associations and dealers.2 Ga. L. 1999, p.2, § 3, not codified by the Legislature, provides that the 1999 amendment is applicable to any actions pending on or brought on or after February 9, 1999. In June 1999 appellant Smith & Wesson3 moved to dismiss the state court action based on the amended statute and the contention that the City did not have the right to regulate firearms in a matter preempted by state law. On October 27, 1999 after briefing and oral argument, State Court Judge M. Gino Brogdon granted Smith & Wesson’s motion to dismiss the claims sounding in strict liability, denied the motion to dismiss three of the negligence claims, but ruled that he would “revisit” the merits of the claims upon filing of summary judgment motions, and declined to rule on remaining claims in the complaint and amended complaint because they were not addressed in the motion to dismiss. In a written order dated November 4, 1999, Judge Brogdon refused Smith & Wesson’s motion under OCGA § 5-6-34 b to certify that the partial denial of the motion to dismiss was of such importance to the case that immediate review should be had by an appellate court.
Believing that the amended firearms regulatory statute precluded the City from pursuing any relief against firearms manufacturers, on November 11, 1999, Glock, Inc. and Browning Arms Company4 hereinafter Glock, Inc. sought a declaratory judgment from the Superior Court of Fulton County5 that the City’s lawsuit violated the express statutory bar contained in the statute and also sought an injunction to prevent the underlying state court action from going forward. Three weeks later, Smith & Wesson and others6 hereinafter Smith & Wesson sought writs of mandamus and prohibition against Judge Brogdon to compel Judge Brogdon to dismiss the case as well as a declaratory judgment that under the regulatory statute the tort lawsuit against the gun manufacturers could not be pursued by the City.7 The superior court issued orders on February 18, 2000, ruling that dismissal of the suit by the state court was not mandated by the regulatory statute, and even if it were, Smith & Wesson and Glock, Inc. were not entitled to such relief which circumvented the remedies available to them in the state court. Because we agree with the superior court that Smith & Wesson and Glock, Inc. were not entitled to the issuance of writs of mandamus or prohibition and were not entitled under these circumstances to injunctive or declaratory relief, we affirm.
