Virginia Tech negligence verdict stands

A Virginia judge upheld a jury’s finding of negligence against the state in the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre but reduced damages to two families who said their daughters could have survived if the university had issued an alert earlier.

Franklin County Circuit Judge William Alexander II set the award at $100,000 for each family, the highest amount allowed under a cap on damages against the state. A jury had initially awarded $4 million to each family.

The action will not end litigation over the deadliest school shooting in modern U.S. history. The attorney general’s office said it would most likely appeal, and an attorney for the families said he would press a negligence claim against university President Charles Steger.

A jury earlier found that Virginia Tech delayed warning students after two shootings on the Blacksburg campus. Seung Hui Cho went on to kill 30 more students and faculty members before killing himself.