$3 Million Settlement in Frat Party Death Suit

The parents of a Pennsylvania university student will receive over $3 million in a case involving their son’s death at a frat party.

Their son, a 20-year-old junior at John Carroll University fell to his death at a New Year’s Eve party at the Phi Kappa Sigma house on the University of Pennsylvania campus in 2010.

The student was intoxicated when he fell while climbing a flight of stairs at the frat house. He tumbled over a faulty railing, landed on his head, and died several days later.

Lawyers for the student’s parents claimed that the university had issued several citations to the fraternity for the broken railing and had repeatedly ordered that it be fixed. The fraternity never did so.

The fraternity agreed to pay $3 million in damages to the student’s family. They will also receive $375,000 from the beer distributor that allowed their son to purchase alcohol underage.