THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 7, 1996 TAG: 9606070444
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 50 lines
A judge on Thursday dismissed two lawsuits against Norfolk State University over the 1994 shooting of two students - one fatally - in a campus dormitory.
Judge Charles E. Poston ruled that Norfolk State and its officials had no legal duty to change the lock combination to a dorm room where the students were shot, and therefore were not liable.
The two students, Gerard Edwards and Ronald Richardson, were shot while sleeping in their beds in Scott Hall dorm on Jan. 18, 1994. The gunman, Shamont Burrell, was a former roommate. He got into the room because he knew the door lock combination, which was not changed after he moved out. Edwards died; Richardson survived.
Last year, Richardson and Edwards' mother sued NSU, President Harrison Wilson and Housing Director Madge Sharpe-Wilson. The suits claimed that NSU officials were responsible for the shootings because they knew Scott Hall was dangerous but did not change the dorm-room lock combination. Each suit sought $10 million in damages.
Norfolk State argued that it did not know the attack was going to occur and therefore had no obligation to protect the students.
In a six-page letter, Poston ruled that NSU is correct.
``There was no common law duty for the defendants to change the security code on the dormitory room when Burrell moved out, nor did the defendants undertake such a duty by contract or by action,'' Poston wrote.
The judge cited a 1974 precedent that found a landlord has no duty to protect a tenant from criminal acts of third parties. He also cited a landmark 1987 case involving the Lake Wright Motel in Norfolk. The court in that case concluded that a business does not have to protect its visitors or customers unless it knows an attack is imminent.
Poston also ruled that Wilson and Sharpe-Williams are protected by sovereign immunity and cannot be sued for their actions. Sovereign immunity is a legal doctrine that says government officials generally cannot be sued for official acts unless they are grossly negligent.
As precedent, Poston cited a 1982 case in which a principal and school superintendent were protected by sovereign immunity from a lawsuit by a student who was stabbed on school grounds during school hours by another student.
Howard J. Marx, attorney for Richardson and Edwards' mother, said he will appeal or file an amended suit in a different form.
In March 1995, Burrell was convicted of first-degree murder in Edwards' death and sentenced to 68 years in prison.
KEYWORDS: LAWSUIT NORFOLK STATE UNIVERSITY SHOOTING by CNB