Japanese Firm Settles With City in Body Armor Lawsuit

Under a settlement approved Friday by the Los Angeles City Council, a Japanese textile maker whose ballistic material was used in allegedly ineffective body armor sold to the LAPD has agreed to pay the city between $647,000 and $1.3 million to resolve a class-action lawsuit.

The payout is part of a $29-million settlement by Tyoba Co. Ltd. with police departments and officers nationwide. The firm’s Zylon fiber was used in about 2,900 lightweight bullet-resistant vests sold to the Los Angeles Police Department and its officers by Second Chance Body Armor Inc.

Second Chance replaced those vests in fall 2003 with Kevlar versions after the company notified hundreds of police departments that it had stopped selling the Zylon vests because tests showed that the core material was degrading from sweat and heat before the vests’ five-year life expectancy.

Jonathan Diamond, spokesman for the city attorney’s office, said the exact amount to be paid to the city would depend on how many others agree to the settlement. The agreement with the Japanese firm does not resolve litigation with Second Chance.

Questions about the vests’ safety arose in 2003 after a Pennsylvania officer, Edward Limbacher, was wounded in the stomach when a .40-caliber bullet penetrated his vest and Oceanside Officer Tony Zeppetella was fatally shot while wearing one.

Second Chance has denied its vests were to blame, and Tyoba has insisted that Zylon is an effective ballistic material. But a study by the U.S. Justice Department released last month showed that vests containing Zylon failed to stop a bullet in nearly six of every 10 tests.

Zylon vests became a popular alternative to bulkier traditional body armor, and about 240,000 were sold in the last 10 years. Because the Justice Department decertified the vests’ safety approval, Armor Holdings Inc., the nation’s largest body armor firm, has agreed to convert Zylon vests using other material.