NEW HAVEN - A Superior Court judge this week dismissed a longstanding wrongful death lawsuit stemming from the December 2012 shooting incident at Sandy Hook School. Through that lawsuit, the estates of two of the first graders killed in the incident sought money damages in a liability claim against the Town of Newtown and the Newtown Board of Education.

In a summary judgement dated May 7, Judge Robin Wilson wrote "Emergencies, by their very nature, are sudden and often rapidly evolving events, and a response can never be one hundred percent scripted and directed, and is a specific reason why police officers have been afforded broad discretion... To say that the faculty and staff of the school were to act in a prescribed manner in responding to an emergency situation would likewise be illogical and in direct contradiction to the very purpose of governmental immunity: allowing for the exercise of judgement without fear of second-guessing."

In her 29-page decision, Judge Wilson concluded that "The defendants are immune from liability."

Of the lawsuit's dismissal, First Selectman Dan Rosenthal said May 9, "Our counsel is in the process reviewing the judge's ruling, and as it is still arguably a pending legal matter, it wouldn't be appropriate for me to comment at this time."

Attorney Donald Papcsy, who represents the plaintiffs, which are the Estates of Noah Pozner and Jesse Lewis, said that the plaintiffs will appeal Judge Wilson's decision. Attorney Devin Janosov also represented the plaintiffs.

In a statement, Mr Papcsy said, "This ruling, which every parent should read, should serve as notice to all parents of young boys and girls: Our children are not safe in public schools."

"From our neighbors in Sandy Hook, to the young men and women of Parkland, the legislatures and judicial systems have decided for all of us that, even when the facts support a total breakdown of school security protocol, the 'immunity' laws are used as an excuse to prevent parents from holding them accountable," Mr Papcsy added.

"We brought this action to change that, not just for the parents who lost their children's lives in the Sandy Hook incident, but for all children. We will continue to fight for this cause so that, someday, we can live in a world where we know our children are going to come home at the end of the school day," Mr Papcsy said.

In June 2017, the defendants sought to have the wrongful death lawsuit dismissed.

In the defendants' motion to dismiss the lawsuit, attorney Charles Deluca, representing the defendants, wrote, in part, "The defendants are entitled to governmental immunity pursuant to [applicable state law]." Also, the defendants claimed that "The plaintiffs have failed to produce the requisite expert testimony to support their claims." Attorney Monte Frank also represented the defendants.

The plaintiffs requested and received repeated delays in responding to the defendants' motion to dismiss.

"The plaintiffs acknowledge that the... case is one of unprecedented notoriety, as well as carnage, speculation, press coverage... However, [the] plaintiffs believe that if [applicable] law is followed as drafted, and the court refrains from attempting to answer the questions of material fact that exist in the... case, and instead just seeks to determine if such questions of fact exist, as the law in Connecticut dictates, that it will be clear that the plaintiffs should be permitted to proceed on their claims to a jury for a determination of the multitude of factual issues which exist in the... case," according to plaintiffs' objection to defendants' motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

In the shooting incident, a 20-year-old gunman shot his way into the school on the morning of December 14, 2012, where he killed 20 first graders and six adults. The gunman then shot and killed himself as police approached. Before going to the school, the gunman had shot and killed his mother at their Sandy Hook home. The plaintiffs filed the lawsuit in January 2015.

In June 2016, the estates of Pozner and Lewis offered to settle the lawsuit provided that each plaintiff received a payment of $5.5 million from the defendants. The defendants did not accept that offer.

system not having sufficient security measures in place to prevent the deaths.

The Pozner-Lewis lawsuit alleged there was insufficient security in place in the school and its grounds, allowing the shooter to forcibly enter the building and then enter two classrooms and shoot and kill people within those classrooms. The 66-page lawsuit lists a variety of reasons why the plaintiffs consider the school system to have been negligent on December 14, 2012, resulting in the many deaths there. The various allegations focus on the school 

The lawsuit states, "They [officials] failed to provide a security guard or any other type of law enforcement personnel to assist in the implementation of the [security] policies and procedures should an intruder enter the building, while leaving a large enough non-safety glass window directly to the right of the locked outer doors of the school, making access to the building relatively simple, and [making] successful lockdown of the building virtually impossible."

The wrongful death lawsuit lodged by the estates of Pozner and Lewis is a separate lawsuit from another wrongful death lawsuit, which has been lodged by ten plaintiffs against Remington Outdoor Company, Inc, the manufacturer of the semiautomatic rifle that the gunman used in the shooting incident. The estates of Pozner and Lewis, however, are plaintiffs in both lawsuits.

The plaintiffs in the gun lawsuit are now seeking to have the state Supreme Court return that legal action to state Superior Court for a jury trial. A Superior Court judge had dismissed that lawsuit in the fall of 2016, resulting in the plaintiffs' Supreme Court appeal. The Supreme Court court heard oral arguments in the case in November 2017.

However, Remington having entered bankruptcy proceedings in March has postponed activity in the Supreme Court appeal.