Sandy Hook victims settle lawsuits against Nancy Lanza estate for $1.5 million

The families of 16 victims of the Sandy Hook School shooting will receive about $94,000 each to settle a pair of lawsuits against the estate of the shooter’s mother, Nancy Lanza.

Documents filed Monday in Probate Court show that the families have agreed to equally divide a $1.5 million homeowner’s insurance policy that Lanza had on the Newtown home she shared with her son, Adam Lanza. Each family will get $93,750, records show. The lawsuits were filed by the families of 14 of those who died in the massacre and two who survived.

On Dec. 14, 2012 , Adam Lanza walked into the Sandy Hook Elementary School and gunned down 26 people, including 20 first graders, using a Bushmaster AR-15 assault weapon that his mother had purchased legally. He had already killed his mother before going to the school – shooting her several times with a rifle as she slept in her bed at their home.

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The lawsuits made essentially the same claim -- that Nancy Lanza purchased the Bushmaster and kept it in her home, where her 20-year-old housebound son had access to it. State police reports said that the Bushmaster was kept in a gun safe that was in a room adjacent to Adam Lanza’s bedroom and that he had unlimited access to it.

The lawsuits allege that Nancy Lanza “knew or should have known that (Adam Lanza’s) mental and emotional condition made him a danger to others.”

The claims were made in two separate lawsuits filed against the estate of Nancy Lanza, which is still open in probate court. Stamford attorney Samuel Starks is the estate’s administrator.

In one of the lawsuits, which included the families of six of the children who were killed in the massacre, the lead plaintiffs were the parents of James Mattioli. In the second lawsuit, which included 10 victims, the lead plaintiff was the estate of Rachel D’Avino. In the second lawsuit, two of the plaintiffs are Natalie Hammond and Debra Pisani, teachers who were shot by Lanza but survived. Both of them were hit by stray bullets.

The settlements must be approved by Probate Judge Joseph Egan before they can be finalized in Superior Court, but attorneys familiar with the case said that should be completed by the end of this month. All of the attorneys who worked on the case did so pro bono so that the families could get all of the proceeds.

There have been two other lawsuits filed as a result of the shootings, both of which are still pending.

Many of the same families also are suing Remington Outdoor Co., the distributor of the Bushmaster, in federal court. That lawsuit claims that the Bushmaster, which can fire up to 30 rounds a minute and is capable of piercing body armor, shouldn’t have been entrusted to the general public because it is a military assault weapon.

The other lawsuit is against the town of Newtown and alleges that the town did not take enough steps to secure the school. The lawsuit alleges that Lauren Rousseau, a substitute teacher killed that day, did not have a key to her room and therefore was unable to lock the door before Lanza entered the classroom.

He killed 14 of the 15 people in that room. The rest were killed in an adjacent classroom. Lanza killed himself using one of the handguns that he had brought into the building. He fired 155 shots in less than five minutes.

The house where Nancy and Adam Lanza lived was torn down a few months ago. A bank purchased it for $1 from the estate and then turned it over to the town.

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