On March 14, 2012, a jury found that Virginia Tech was guilty of negligence for delaying a campus warning. The parents of two slain students, Erin Nicole Peterson and Julia Kathleen Pryde, had filed a wrongful death civil lawsuit that argued that lives could have been spared if university officials had moved more quickly to alert the campus after the initial shooting. On October 31, 2013, the Virginia Supreme Court reversed the verdict, citing the trial judge's instruction to the jury that there was a "special relationship" between Virginia Tech and the two students, since they were "business invitees" of the university. In rejecting the decision, the Virginia Supreme Court said that "even if there was a special relationship between the Commonwealth (meaning the state of Virginia, and its affiliated agencies, such as Virginia Tech) and students of Virginia Tech ... there was no duty for the Commonwealth to warn students about the potential for criminal acts by third parties." The state has claimed that ultimate responsibility rested with Cho for not seeking assistance prior to the shooting. The two families had not joined in a previous settlement with the other families.