A lawsuit filed into circuit court Sept. 17 seeks damages against the parents of a Salem man who fatally shot another man in 2016.
Plaintiff in the lawsuit is Marcella Gehm, the natural daughter of the late Michael Gehm. Michael Gehm was killed Dec. 2, 2016, as a result of being shot in the face by Fridjov Severud III at a property located on Dent County Road 4060. Defendants in the lawsuit are Fred and Cristina Severud, Fridjov Severud III’s parents and owners of the property where the incident occurred.
The petition was filed by attorney Duane M. Randle of Osage Beach-based firm Price & Randle LLC. It asserts as owners of the property where the incident occurred the Severuds had a duty to provide reasonable care, safety and protection of its visitors. It seeks damages resulting from the plaintiff being deprived of services, support, counsel and comfort Gehm would have otherwise been able to provide.
Fridjov Severud III pled guilty to felony second-degree murder in connection to Gehm’s shooting on Dec. 11, 2018. He was sentenced to 10 years in the department of corrections by Circuit Judge Kelly Parker as recommended by Dent County Prosecuting Andrew Curley.
Severud is the grandson of Fridtjov N. Severud, the legendary structural engineer who immigrated to the United States from Norway in 1923. The senior Severud worked on projects ranging from St. Louis’s Gateway Arch to New York City’s Madison Square Garden. Upon his death in 1990, The New York Times ran his obituary, and contemporaries in the National Academy of Engineers called Severud a visionary pacesetter for the industry. The Manhattan-based consulting firm he founded, Severud Associates, exists to this day and has completed more than 10,000 projects around the world.
