RICHMOND, Va., Oct. 31 (UPI) -- Virginia Tech University was not negligent in its handling of the 2007 campus shooting in which 32 people were killed, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
The 15-page ruling overturned a 2012 ruling by a Montgomery County Circuit Court jury.
The initial wrongful death suit was filed by the families of two students slain on the Blacksburg, Va., campus, Julia Pryde and Erin Peterson. As students, Pryde and Peterson had a "special relationship" with the school as "business invitees", the county judge told the jury.
In overturning the previous ruling the Supreme Court noted there was no reason to expect the school or the state "to warn students of the potential for third party criminal acts," and "even assuming...a relevant special relationship under Virginia law, the evidence adduced did not give rise to warn of third party criminal acts."
The two students were among 32 killed before the assailant, student Seung-Hui Cho, committed suicide.
