Virginia Supreme Court to hear appeals in Tech shooting case today 

Today the full Virginia Supreme Court will hear appeals of two $4 million jury awards for the families of two women killed at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007. Both the plaintiffs and the defense have asked the court to look at the case.

Attorneys for the state are asking that the March 2012 Montgomery County Circuit Court jury verdict be set aside, or at the least, remanded for retrial. The $4 million awards were reduced to $100,000 each under the Virginia Tort Claims Act, which caps damages against the state.

The defense has argued that presiding Judge William Alexander made a handful of incorrect legal rulings during the case, including providing faulty instructions to the jury.

Over defense objections, Alexander instructed the jury that Tech administrators had, under state law, a special relationship to its students. That relationship, the jury was told, imposed a duty upon the administrators to provide for the safety of the students.

Attorneys for the commonwealth argued that the Supreme Court had in another recent case refused to extend such special relationships to public school administrators.

The court will also consider other defense arguments, including that because the evidence in the case did not support a finding of negligence, it should not have gone to a jury.

The plaintiffs are asking the court to reinstate Tech President Charles Steger as a defendant . Alexander dismissed Steger on a legal technicality before the trial began.

The plaintiffs are arguing that res judicata, the doctrine under which Steger was dismissed, is confusing and needs to be clarified.

If the court grants the plaintiffs’ appeal, the case could be retried in a lower court.

Two justices, William Mims and Elizabeth McClanahan, have recused themselves from the case. No reasons for the recusals have been given.

Mims was chief deputy attorney general for Virginia when the shootings occurred. McClanahan served as chairwoman of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia in the 1990s, and also served on the board of visitors of the College of William and Mary.

Retired justices are expected to fill in for them.

Julia Pryde and Erin Peterson were two of 30 people killed in Norris Hall on April 16, 2007, just more than two hours after the same gunman fatally shot two students in the West Ambler Johnston dormitory.

An email alert to the campus about the dormitory shooting was delayed for revision by a university executive committee until moments before the gunman opened fire in Norris Hall classrooms.

The Pryde and Peterson families declined to join a multimillion-dollar legal settlement with the state and filed suit on the second anniversary of the killings.

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