Steve St. Juliana, whose daughter Hana St. Juliana was killed in the Oxford High school shooting in 2021, speaks in Oxford, Mich., on Nov. 18, 2024, in support of a state investigation into the events that led up to the shooting. (Anna Liz Nichols/Michigan Advance)

Steve St. Juliana, the father of Hana St. Juliana, one of the students killed in the Oxford High School mass shooting, was given the green light to sue the state and the Michigan Department of State Police after the Court of Appeals overturned a lower court’s decision to dismiss the case.

In a unanimous decision of the state Court of Appeals in St. Juliana v. Michigan State Police, the panel reversed the Court of Claims’ decision to dismiss the case in March 2024. The lower court ruled that the complaint was not timely filed.

The Court of Appeals decision, which was issued Thursday but released publicly Friday, ruled otherwise and remanded the case back to the Court of Claims, where the case can continue.

Kevin Carlson of Pitt McGehee Palmer Bonanni & Rivers is the attorney for Hana St. Juliana’s estate.

“We are pleased by the Michigan Court of Appeals’ decision to reverse the dismissal of our client’s case. By allowing this case to proceed, the court is upholding the principles of fairness and leading us closer to a path of justice. For two years, the State has tried to delay and derail our client’s case, going so far as to withhold 91 pages of critical documents that should have been turned over. We hope this reversal can finally force the State to face its consequences and instate changes that ensure the tragedy that occurred on November 30, 2021, will never happen again,” Carlson said.

Steve St. Juliana initiated a wrongful death lawsuit against Michigan State Police after details emerged in a separate lawsuit filed by parents against the Oxford Community School District. Those proceedings brought to light information about tips to the OK2SAY tipline, which is facilitated by State Police. The tips involved information of a planned attack at the high school. One of the early tips was forwarded to Oxford High School administrators and the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office.

St. Juliana’s initial lawsuit claimed that the sheriff’s office determined there was no actual threat and did not take further action.

In the days leading up to the attack, the shooter, who was 15 years old at the time, made social media posts about the weapon used in the shooting, which was given to him as a gift from his parents. Both he and his mother, Jennifer Crumbley, referenced the gun as a gift in social media posts.

Additional OK2SAY tips were received regarding those posts, with parents, students, staff and other community members expressing concern that there might soon be an attack at the school. Still, law enforcement and school administrators allegedly ignored those threats.

The grieving father sought damages from the state, asserting State Police did not fulfill its duty to address the escalating tips and threats of violence in the leadup to the attack. The lawsuit noted that St. Juliana only became aware of those tips as they emerged in a separate legal battle with the school district.

A notice of intent to sue was filed with the Court of Claims in September 2022, within six months of discovering the tips to State Police.

Attorneys for the state and the department, however, filed a motion to dismiss the case, arguing that St. Juliana hadn’t complied with the Court of Claims Act’s rule necessitating a lawsuit be filed within six months of Hana St. Juliana’s death.

Court of Claims Judge James Redford dismissed the case on March 6, 2024, noting that Steve St. Juliana’s lawsuit was filed two years after he was appointed as the representative of his daughter’s estate.

Upon appeal, Steve St. Juliana asserted that the Court of Claims erred because a provision in the Revised Judicature Act of 1961 involving wrongful-death savings rendered his complaint as timely filed.

In the 3-0 Court of Appeals decision issued Thursday from Judge Kathleen Feeney, Judge Stephen Borrello and Judge Anica Letica, the court found that the savings provision was intended to safeguard plaintiffs’ rights in wrongful-death actions, particularly when confronting statutory deadlines like those in the Court of Claims Act.

The court further concluded that the provision extended the filing time frame but also adjusted the statutory notice period.

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