Sig Sauer is getting big contracts for its handguns in the United States in recent months, from the various branches of the U.S. Military and other law enforcement agencies. However, the company is facing also contract battles like Glock’s protest in the M17 Modular Handgun System and the FN America protesting its win Immigration and Customs. Though it’s more of a third party in this as the procuring organizations are to resolve these protests

Now, a legal fight is looming over the company with the State of New Jersey being the litigant. In a report on Guns.com, Sig Sauer is named in a US$2.5 million law suit for selling defective pistols to the New Jersey State Police. In 2014, Sig Sauer won a contract to deliver 3,000 SIG P229 Pistols to the New Jersey State Police.

The complaint, which was filed last month with the Superior Court of New Jersey, Troopers during a qualification session found their pistols unable to eject the shells, causing the pistol to be jammed. Sig Sauer tried to resolve the issues by first replacing what it suspected to be culprit, the barrel. However, the issue remained the same. The second diagnosis was the problem with the extractor springs and they started replacing.

SIG P229 (Sig Sauer Photo)

Also, the State Police were questioning the use of the P229 Elite Enhanced Elite, when what they tested during the bidding process was the P229 Legacy and these pistols use different extraction systems even if they look similar. The company agreed to replace the guns but was unable to keep the timeline and could only deliver half of what was agreed upon in the contract. Testing of the new weapons still resulted into units showing failures in ejecting the shell.

By January 2016, Sig Sauer determined that the fault was in the barrel. But by this time, the New Jersey State Police decided to return the pistols and award a new contract to Glock, which then supplied the Glock 19 Gen 4.

Sig Sauer issued a statement regarding the lawsuit as published in The Outdoor Wire:

STATEMENT REGARDING NEW JERSEY STATE POLICE

May 21, 2017 – Sig Sauer, Inc. is aware of the lawsuit recently filed by the State of New Jersey regarding its purchase of the Sig Sauer P229 model handgun by the New Jersey State Police (NJSP).

The NJSP selected the Sig Sauer P229 handgun as its new duty weapon after conducting an in-depth review and exhaustive testing of available handguns. Sig Sauer developed a version of the P229 specific to the requirements of the NJSP, and delivered to the NJSP as scheduled in the summer of 2014.

 Following delivery, the NJSP informed Sig Sauer that it was experiencing failures during qualification training with their training ammunition. Sig Sauer immediately began working with the NJSP to determine the cause of this failure and resolve the issue.

Sig Sauer's investigation of the failure mode indicates a contributing factor may be a compatibility issue between this unique NJSP P229 and the specific training ammunition used by the NJSP. Importantly, these failures were limited to the training ammunition used by the NJSP, and the P229s functioned when using their duty ammunition.

Sig Sauer had been diligently working with New Jersey officials to resolve the issues associated with the P229 handguns it purchased. In light of these discussions, Sig Sauer was surprised that New Jersey filed a lawsuit. Sig Sauer is committed to customer satisfaction, and stands ready to continue these discussions and work with NJSP to reach an equitable solution.

Top Photo: New Jersey State Police Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team member (U.S. Air Force photo/Greg L. Davis)