The Commonwealth has settled two of the five lawsuits that resulted from the Pavilion I balcony crash that killed a 73-year-old woman and injured 18 others during the 1997 Medical School commencement ceremonies.
The two settlements, which totaled $790,000, go to the family members of Mary Brashear, who was killed when a section of the balcony fell during the ceremony. Brashear and her husband, Thomas Brashear, were attending the graduation of their granddaughter, Marianne Gerard Zura.
Thomas Brashear will receive $340,000 and Zura's mother-in-law, Judith Zura, will receive $450,000 as part of the out-of-court agreements, said University spokesperson Louise Dudley.
The Commonwealth's Risk Management Fund, a pool of centrally-managed money, will fund the payments.
The other three lawsuits filed in connection with the incident still are outstanding. Barbara Gerard, daughter of the Brashears, her husband David Gerard, and Betty Shaffer, who also is the Brashear's daughter, all have pending lawsuits.
Dudley said the University was not aware of any further developments in those cases.
The University's Office of the General Counsel has been working closely with Attorney General Mark Earley's office in relation to the five cases.
"I think it's fair to say there was general agreement that money would be better spent in assisting people who were injured in the accident rather than spending money on further litigation," Dudley said. "Litigation can take a long time, extend over years and use up a lot of resources."
In addition to the Commonwealth, the lawsuits named J. Murray Howard, University curator and architect of the Academical Village, and Anadac Inc., an engineering firm that inspected the balcony's condition in 1994. The firm concluded the balcony was in good physical condition.
A study conducted immediately after the incident by a different company blamed the collapse on a corroded iron rod, which had been in place since the Pavilion's construction in 1822.
The University has spent $531,000 in repairs and about $300,000 in medical payments to those injured as a result of the collapse. Since the incident, there have been 13 other claims against the state that also were settled out of court, Dudley said.
Neither General Counsel Paul C. Forch nor spokespersons for the Risk Management Fund could be reached for comment.
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