DATE: Thursday, March 13, 1997              TAG: 9703130366

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: STAFF REPORT 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   28 lines

LAWSUIT AGAINST GAS COMPANY, NRHA IN 4 DEATHS IS DELAYED

A lawsuit that accuses the gas company and the city housing authority of negligence in the 1994 carbon monoxide poisoning deaths of four people in their Park Place home has been delayed 3 1/2 months.

The trial against Virginia Natural Gas and the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority was scheduled to start Monday. It was expected to last two weeks.

Instead, pretrial motions arose and the judge delayed the case three days. On Wednesday, he set a new trial date: July 1. By then, all remaining pretrial issues will be resolved.

The case involves a family of four - a mother, father and two children - killed in their home at 208 W. 30th St. in December 1994.

At the time, investigators blamed a faulty gas-fueled furnace. They said a chimney that vented carbon monoxide fumes was blocked with fallen bricks and soot, which forced the poisonous, odorless gas into the house.

The family's relatives seek $5 million for each of the four lives lost. The gas company and the housing authority say they are not liable for the faulty furnace. KEYWORDS: LAWSUIT FATALITY

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