The Arizona Board of Regents, former athletic director Gene Smith and ASU football coach Dirk Koetter will find out by Nov. 14 whether they will remain defendants in a wrongful-death lawsuit.
B. Lee Falkner, father of former football player Brandon Falkner, filed the $14 million wrongful-death lawsuit after his son was killed outside a Scottsdale nightclub in March 2005.
Former football player Loren Wade is charged with first-degree murder for reportedly shooting Falkner.
Lawyers for the defense argued a motion to dismiss the lawsuit in a hearing Friday.
The judge will have 60 days to make a decision on the motion to dismiss, Brown said.
Don Crampton, Falkner's lawyer, said it is too early in the case to dismiss the lawsuit.
"I feel the motion for dismissal is premature," Crampton said. "We don't know the full extent of the facts in this case yet."
Falkner's suit alleged Koetter and other athletic staff should have controlled Wade's "violent tendencies," according to the suit filed in February.
Jeffrey Pyburn, ASU football coach Dirk Koetter's lawyer, argued the University is not responsible for monitoring students 24 hours, seven days a week, especially after hours and off-campus.
"It's an impossible duty for anyone to follow and the law never recognized such a duty," Pyburn said.
The next step is for the judge to rule on the motion and inform all parties, said J.W. Brown, spokeswoman for Maricopa County Superior Court.
If either the defense or plaintiff do not agree with the judge's decision, they can appeal it to a higher state court, she said.
If Judge Robert Houser decides to keep the lawsuit and Falkner wins, the defendants would be protected from having to pay the penalties themselves.
ASU participates in a risk-management insurance program for its employees, said Nancy Tribbensee, ASU general counsel.
It covers employees against any legal judgment and legal-defense fees provided by the Attorney General of Arizona, Tribbensee said.
Smith is also covered in the program because he was an ASU employee at the time, she said.
ASU was dismissed from the lawsuit on June 20, 2006, from Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Robert C. Houser, according to Maricopa County Court Records.
ABOR is the proper defendant in the lawsuit so, ASU is technically not the defendant, Trabbensee said.
Reach the reporter at: Jeffrey.mitchell@asu.edu.
