Reject wants to sue
 

We didn't admit one of our pledges this semester since he didn't fulfill his requirements. He's now threatening to sue to get his dues back. We're arguing that we already spent the money on the events over the semester, and it isn't our fault that he did not attend. He wants his national dues back as well, which is beyond our ability.

He says he'll drop everything if we either 1. refund his money or 2. admit him to the fraternity.

Anybody been through this before? Got any advice?

Show him the contract he signed about dues.

He should have signed some type of financial responsibility form. Show him a copy. Let him know that you won't send it to collections if he pays within two weeks.

Sounds like he's already paid. He wants his money BACK, right?

His dues were for the opportunity to participate in the fraternity's events and for any other privileges of association granted to pledges. The extent to which he did or did not make use of that opportunity is his own responsibility. He's trying to blackmail you into initiating him, and someone like that has no business being a part of any GLO.

He can file papers all he wants, but the burden is on him to prove both that he has a cause of action against you and that he's entitled to recover any damages. You might want to keep your advisor/regional official in the loop, just in case, but otherwise call his bluff and tell him he's not entitled to any kind of refund, nor is he going to be initiated. If he does file, you might consider any relevant counter-action against him to at least recover your chapter's costs.

Yes and yes.

This person is a disgruntiled and maybe a distrurbed person.

He has no right to join, he was invited.

If things did not work out then the members have the right to make a decission, not him.:mad:

SAEalumnus has given you some very good advice. For sure let your advisor know what is going on - he may want to give his higher-ups a head's up. Don't let him intimidate you - anyone can threaten to sue, or sue, for that matter. I doubt very seriously if he will indeed follow through, and if he does I'm sure your fraternity has the resources to handle it. Good luck.

I've seen this before as well.

One way to handle it - have an alumnus that is an attorney, give this young man a call/send a legal letter to cease and desist.

Worked very well when we had a similar situation. This was a "trust fund" student also. But, just the mere presence of an attorney and a letter in said attorney's hand (threating possible further steps such as civil action for harassment, etc) made him go away, which is all the chapter wanted, too.

Every chapter out there should keep a few alum-attorneys close.

Talk to one of them.

He is "threatening to sue." He hasn't served you with a lawsuit, has he? I'm guessing that attorney's fees greatly exceed the amount he is seeking from you in restitution for the dues he paid to the fraternity.

Send the matter to your nationals office and the person at your nationals HQ in charge of member services if he follows through on his threats. However, I don't see him getting that far. It seems to me that if he wants his money back or entrance into the fraternity then he is just mad about being dropped. However, it is your right to blackball pledges.

Talk to your chapter adviser and the Greek adviser at your school, in the meantime. Good luck. I don't think this issue will proceed beyond the former pledge making empty threats.

Actually..it depends.

Did he not meet the requirements because his GPA was too low to pledge? If so, he has the right to ask for his dues back - you should never have given him a bid and allowed him to pay.

If he didn't meet the requirements because he stopped coming to stuff, that's different, and you can tell him to STFU.

There's a huge difference between not having the grades to pledge and not having grades to be initiated.

It depends - for example, at my school grades to be initiated are your overall GPA...not counting this semester unless you're initiated AFTER the semester is over. So if we initiated someone the last day of finals, this whole semester wouldn't matter.

So no, there really isn't a difference.

I don't think he has any right to a refund regardless of his grades. Whether any given member is a pledge or an active, dues are similar to things like netflix or a theme park annual pass. You pay for the privilege of making use of a service. Just because you pay your money, doesn't mean you're entitled to a refund if you never bother to actually use the service that's been made available to you. Grades and dues are altogether separate questions. It's incumbent upon every member, pledge and active alike, to live up to the obligations of membership, both financial and academic. Not even legacies are guaranteed to be initiated, so no garden variety pledge in his right mind has any basis upon which he can actually think he can force a chapter to initiate him, especially when he can't or won't live up to his own obligations.

Im going to assume that he is threatening to go to the cops about hazing. Have a sit down talk with the kid and basically tell him that going to the cops would be a waste of time because no brother is going to back his story up. Say that you will tell everyone that you kicked him out for trying to sell coke to brothers. I've never been in this situation before but a few of my buddies in other fraternities told me that threatening them is the best route.

I think that there are a few better ideas posted here already.
I do not see any need for Chapter to leave the "high ground" just to get to this persons level.
For if it does get dirty, it is better to have clean hands.

I suggest you talk to your chapter advisor, or a regional/national advisor if necessary, to inform them of the issue and find out once and for all what you have to do in this situation. He's threatening to sue your organization, not just your chapter, and therefore the national fraternity should be informed of the situation. They will probably coach you on what to tell him, and that will likely make him drop the issue.

True, but just because someone files a lawsuit doesn't necessarily mean anything. Everyone has a constitutionally protected right to have their day in court, even if they're just issuing a misguided rant from a soapbox. The guy still has to prove that the chapter owes him anything. Although I agree that it would be prudent to keep someone above the chapter informed.

Of course he has a right to his day in court...but I think most people would spare themselves the expense of hiring a lawyer to represent them in court if they knew they'd lose. I just don't think it's a good idea for the chapter to handle this internally; it's best they seek next steps from an authority on the national fraternity and legal issues.

I would imagine that the amount of dues for one semester is small enough that it would probably only be small claims court, which doesn't require a lawyer generally. The only thing I'd say he'd be entitled to a refund for would be an Initiation Fee, if he paid one and wasn't Initiated, but certainly not dues.

2008 winner for "Worst Advice" IMHO

Nothing like taking a bad situation and making it worse.

What am I missing?

I don't see anything above about going to the cops, but in any event I don't think it would be wise to even threaten to "tell everyone" something that would be damaging to his character. That might be grounds for legal action on his part.

I think SAE and LXA have given some good advice (along with some others).

I agree with SAEalumnus and LXAalum. Also be sure you laugh in his face, show him the contract he signed, remind him that he is a failure, and laugh in his face some more.

Funny enough, I've heard something similar to this.
We did a road trip to a few chapters a while ago and when talking to one they said, "Oh, no we don't give them or let them wear anything related to us." We were surprised and said, "Really, not even like a rush shirt?" The guys said "No, that way if they are balled or want to go to the University to say we hazed we can say, 'No - We don't even know him. He was selling drugs at our party so we threw him out."

Different strokes for different folks though?

I agree, I wouldn't worry about it though as long as you show the contract he signed it should not be a problem. Good luck.

Problem - They had to turn in their list of pledges to the Greek Life advisor and to IFC. All the GL Advisor has to do is look at the original pledge list.

At my school, a student must have 12 credits (can be AP) to join a GLO. Sometimes fraternities take "dirty pledges" (first semester freshmen without 12 credits). They tell the University that they are pledging the following semester. I'd imagine that a fraternity concerned about pledges going to the University about hazing might do this.

But, the chapter has acknowledged that there is a relationship with the 'potential' pledge. Therefore, the chapter cannot argue that they don't know the guy and have no relationship with him.

Something no one has mentioned, it all depends on the Inat'l policies and more importantly the wording of the legal contract/financial obligations form he signed. He may be entitled to a pro-rated refund for the portion of the semester after he was no longer a member or he may be SOL. It should be spelled out in your forms. If not, then your Inat'l needs to address this in their form because this sort of situation happens more times than any of us would like.

Yeah, thats what I said too. They said that they don't have paperwork to hand in. It was a small southern school, what can I say? Maybe they were blowing smoke up my ass but they showed me some things that led me to believe they were authentic...

At my school we have paperwork for every single thing we do. If 3 people of one organization are together it is considered an official fraternity/sorority event.

Yeah, I think they were blowing smoke. Maybe there are campuses where you don't have to turn in your bid list, your pledge list, etc.

I also know, at least with Sigma Chi, we have to turn in a list of our pledges to HQ. If your fraternity has to do that, then his name is on that list also.

Threatening them might not be too smart....Maybe just letting him know his options, how its in his best interest to do certain things and how his best interests line up with the frats