State of Virginia asks judge to honor $100,000 cap in Va. Tech negligence suit

The state of Virginia is asking a judge to honor a $100,000 cap on damages in a successful wrongful death lawsuit brought by the parents of two Virginia Tech students who were among 33 students and faculty killed in a shooting rampage on the campus almost five years ago. The attorneys for the two victims’ parents have asked the court to award each family $2 million regardless of the state cap on damages. The attorneys said the money would come from a plan that provides liability coverage for the official actions of state workers.

“Whatever path the plaintiffs ask this court to take,” the state wrote in its filing to the judge, “the destination is the same. The sole defendant in this case is the commonwealth, no judgment can be entered against any other party, and no applicable `liability policy’ exists with maximum limits in excess of $100,000.” After an eight-day trial concluded on March 14, a Circuit Court jury in Montgomery County said the state was negligent when it delayed alerting the campus on the morning of April 16, 2007, that two students had been shot and mortally wounded in a dorm. The shootings were done by student gunman Seung-Hui Cho, who killed more than 30 faculty and students and then himself in what was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. The state agreed to pay $250,000 and create a $100,000 scholarship fund to settle the suit, along with other provisions.