During the early morning hours of April 3, 2021, plaintiff’s decedent Kylan Curtis, 31, a caregiver for his grandmother, was with a friend, Anthony Lara, at the house of another friend, Joseph Michie, in Lancaster, when Michie brought out a lightweight semi-automatic rifle. Michie lived in a small backhouse, which he rented from his mother, Hazeline Jackson, who owned the property and lived in the main house. Curtis and Lara initially went over to Michie’s house to celebrate Michie’s birthday on April 2, 2021. The celebration continued until the early morning hours, during which time Michie retrieved an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle from his bedroom and brought it into the living room to show Curtis and Lara. While Curtis was seated on the couch, Michie stood a few feet away loading and unloading the weapon. Michie then extended the rifle in Curtis’ direction so that Curtis could hold it. However, before making the handoff, the rifle discharged and the bullet struck Curtis in the face. Curtis was ultimately pronounced dead shortly thereafter. Curtis’ mother, Angela Kannenberg, sued Michie and Jackson. Kannenberg alleged that the rifle constituted a dangerous condition on the property and that the defendants were negligent for failing to ensure the property was safe. She also alleged that Michie was negligent in the handling of the firearm. Plaintiff’s counsel contended that Michie was negligent for failing to know whether the semi-automatic rifle was loaded or unloaded at the time he was handing it to Curtis. Counsel also contended that when Michie brought out the rifle, he owed a duty to Curtis to handle the rifle with reasonable care. Michie’s counsel contended that when Michie handed the rifle to Curtis, Michie believed that it was unloaded and posed no harm to anyone., Curtis sustained a gunshot wound to his face. Michie called 911, and police and paramedics arrived at the scene a short time later. While still at the scene, Curtis was pronounced dead at 2:25 a.m. on April 3, 2021. Curtis was survived by his parents, grandmother and sister. Kannenberg sought recovery of wrongful death damages for the loss of her son’s love, companionship, comfort, care, assistance, protection, affection, society and moral support. Although Curtis was a caregiver for his grandmother, Kannenberg did not seek recovery for a loss of services.