CALL FOR NEW TRIAL DENIED MOTHERFILES TOO LATE TO GET NEW LOOK INTO SON'S DEATH.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

VAN NUYS - A judge on Tuesday denied a motion for a new trial in a lawsuit involving the death of a 13-year-old Juniper Intermediate School student killed in a schoolyard fistfight.

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Richard Adler said he could not act on the motion filed by the attorney for the mother of Stephan Corson because it was filed a day late.

``(T)he notice is untimely, and thus, deprives this court of jurisdiction to hear the motion,'' Adler wrote in a three-page ruling.

A jury decided in August that Palmdale School District officials were negligent in supervising youngsters as school let out - when the fight occurred outside a classroom - but weren't responsible for the boy's death. The jury did not award money to Mary Corson.

Corson's attorney, Melanie Lomax, could not be reached Tuesday for comment.

Although Adler said he lacked the jurisdiction to hear the motion, he added that none of the other issues raised in the motion had merit, records show.

Lomax had argued that she had objected to the special-verdict form and that the verdict form was misleading to the jury, officials said.

Mary Corson filed a lawsuit after school officials rejected her $10 million wrongful-death claim.

After four hours of deliberation, the jury voted 11-1 to declare that school officials were negligent in supervising students, but in a 9-3 verdict said the negligence didn't lead to the death of Stephan Corson.

Lomax told the jury a teacher failed to prevent a classroom dispute between Stephan and a 14-year-old classmate from escalating into a fistfight in the schoolyard.

The teacher let her students misbehave in class and stayed inside the room when the boys began fighting after class was dismissed, Lomax had said.

The Palmdale School District's attorney, Martin Carpenter, maintained that the teacher was in control of her class, that Stephan had punched the other boy when he came out of the classroom, and that within seconds an instructional aide stepped between the boys but couldn't prevent the last two punches.

After the aide intervened, Stephan pushed past her to punch the other boy, who immediately hit back and Stephan fell to the pavement, Carpenter said.

Stephan Corson's death in 1999 was ruled a homicide by the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office, which said the boy died from damage to his spinal cord caused either by a punch thrown by the classmate or from hitting the ground with his chin.

Los Angeles County prosecutors declined in April 2000 to file charges against the 14-year-old classmate, saying he acted in self-defense in what was termed an ``excusable homicide.''