RICHMOND, Va., Aug. 28 (UPI) -- Both the parents of two students killed in the Virginia Tech massacre and the school have appealed a decision awarding damages.
The Virginia Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments next month, The Roanoke Times reported Wednesday.
Lawyers for the families of Julia Pryde and Erin Peterson say Charles Steger, the Virginia Tech president, should not have been removed as a defendant. The university says Circuit Court Judge William Alexander made faulty rulings during the trial and has asked the high court to set aside a jury finding that the families were entitled to $4 million each in damages.
Seung-hui Cho killed five members of the faculty and 27 students on April 16, 2007, most of them in a brief shooting spree in a classroom building. He ended the deadliest campus shooting in U.S. history by taking his own life.
Pryde's and Peterson's families refused to join a settlement between Virginia Tech and the families of others killed in the massacre. They were awarded $4 million each but the awards were reduced to $100,000 under a Virginia law capping damages payable by government agencies or institutions.
