GreekChat.com Forums  

Go Back   GreekChat.com Forums > Greek Life

Greek Life This forum is for various discussion topics regarding greek life. If you are posting a non-greek related message, please do so in one of the General Chat Topic forums.

» GC Stats
Members: 329,725
Threads: 115,665
Posts: 2,204,978
Welcome to our newest member, vitoriafranceso
» Online Users: 1,356
2 members and 1,354 guests
UW_dawg
Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 08-26-2005, 05:31 PM
BetteDavisEyes BetteDavisEyes is offline
GreekChat Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: USS Insanity
Posts: 4,970
Parents Sue Sorority over daughters death

The damn link didn't work so I just posted the entire article.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dead Student's Parents Sue Sorority Fri Aug 26, 2:28 PM ET



PLYMOUTH, N.H. - The parents of a Plymouth State University student killed in an alleged hazing-related traffic crash are expanding a lawsuit to charge some of her sorority sisters with conspiracy.

ADVERTISEMENT

Richard and Annette Nester of Coventry, R.I., also are including the school and parents of the driver of the SUV that crashed in October 2003 while filled with sorority sister pledges.

Kelly Nester, 20, was killed when she was thrown from the SUV as it flipped over. Reports stated that Nester was one of 10 people in the vehicle, which was designed to seat five passengers safely.

The lawsuit said student Nicole Dalton was "driving erratically to scare the pledges," who reportedly were blindfolded in the rear of the vehicle. The conspiracy charges allege the women planned to haze the pledges and engaged in harmful activity.

Lawyers for one of the women said even if the women planned to blindfold the pledges and put them in the vehicle, there is no evidence they agreed to negligent driving.

"One cannot conspire to be negligent," they said.

Nester was a member of the SKO sorority's first pledge class, which was founded by two women who were banned from one of the university's existing sororities for misconduct.

Besides Dalton, of Rochester, the lawsuit names three others who were PSU students and members of the Sigma Kappa Omega sorority: Olivia Lucca of Mount Vernon, Maine; Heather Haigh of Ridgefield, Conn.; and Nicole Little of Londonderry.

Dalton's parents, James and Peggy Dalton, also were named in the lawsuit, as they owned the vehicle and were aware of their daughter's four prior speeding convictions and one motor vehicle accident, the suit said.

Plymouth State University is also a defendant in the case for "failing to prevent hazing activities."
__________________
By the time a woman realizes her mother was right, she has a daughter who thinks she is wrong.
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 08-26-2005, 08:44 PM
PM_Mama00 PM_Mama00 is offline
GreekChat Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Michigan
Posts: 5,807
Send a message via AIM to PM_Mama00 Send a message via Yahoo to PM_Mama00
Wow. Sad and unfortunate.

Are they ex-members of Sigma Kappa or something? Or possibly the SKEPi girl? (I'm being serious)
__________________
Proud to be a Macon Magnolia!

KLTC
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 08-26-2005, 10:34 PM
pinkyphimu pinkyphimu is offline
GreekChat Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Boston, MA
Posts: 1,796
if you do a search for this incident in the risk management section, you will find a link to the entire tragedy. i can't remember exactly which npc this group was expelled from, but it wasn't sigma kappa. they created a local and used those letters. if i remember correctly, the entire npc chapter dissolved, but i don't remember if they all took part in the local. in either case, it is here on gc somewhere.
__________________
Proud to be a Macon Magnolia
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 08-26-2005, 10:59 PM
AXi1257 AXi1257 is offline
GreekChat Member
 
Join Date: May 2005
Location: in the middle of nowhere...
Posts: 331
The girls were previous members of ASA...I went searching through the threads and found it.
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 08-27-2005, 11:50 AM
AlphaFrog AlphaFrog is offline
GreekChat Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: The Ozdust Ballroom
Posts: 14,819
Quote:
Originally posted by AXiD670
Yes, I'm interested to know which sorority they were kicked out of.
I was just thinking: "For once the article didn't make a big deal that these girls were banned from ASA"
__________________
Facile remedium est ubertati; sterilia nullo labore vincuntur.
I think pearls are lovely, especially when you need something to clutch. ~ AzTheta
The Real World Can't Hear You ~ GC Troll
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 08-27-2005, 03:06 PM
Munchkin03 Munchkin03 is offline
GreekChat Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Home.
Posts: 8,261
What happens when you sue a local? Since they usually don't have the insurance that national or even regional groups do, can you really get any money? If the sorority was underground, can the university even be held liable for the actions of unrecognized groups?

Are the parents cognizant of the fact that their daughter willingly joined an offshoot group of women kicked out of a national organization for misconduct? My parents don't care about Greek life whatsoever--but they knew better than to let my sister and I join renegade sororities.
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 08-27-2005, 03:17 PM
PM_Mama00 PM_Mama00 is offline
GreekChat Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Michigan
Posts: 5,807
Send a message via AIM to PM_Mama00 Send a message via Yahoo to PM_Mama00
My parents know nothing about Greek stuff, so if I were to join a "renegade" sorority, they'd never know. They would just know it was a sorority. And also yes these girls joined an underground sorority, and they could have declined getting in the car, but did they know the driver would start driving erratically? I woudl have gotten into the car blindfolded because I would have put trust into my future sister taht she wouldn't put me in harm's way. Actually at my big sis revealing, one of the active's who I became close to drove us Phis around while they set up the house for our revealing. (which we later found out would be considered "hazing") but I never would think she'd put me in harm's way.

I think that's the thing with hazing. It could be that girls are too scared to say no and walk away, but it could also be that they trust their future sisters to not hurt them.
__________________
Proud to be a Macon Magnolia!

KLTC
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 08-27-2005, 08:55 PM
pinkyphimu pinkyphimu is offline
GreekChat Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Boston, MA
Posts: 1,796
i also thought that the drivers were cleared of reckless driving in the investigation. i seem to remember wet leaves being the cause. i understand this is a civil suit, but won't the results of that investigation have any bearing?
__________________
Proud to be a Macon Magnolia
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 08-27-2005, 08:57 PM
ladygreek ladygreek is offline
GreekChat Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: In the fraternal Twin Cities
Posts: 6,433
Quote:
Originally posted by pinkyphimu
i also thought that the drivers were cleared of reckless driving in the investigation. i seem to remember wet leaves being the cause. i understand this is a civil suit, but won't the results of that investigation have any bearing?
I think civil suits are easier to win--there's a different burden of proof. Remember the O.J. case?
__________________
DSQ
Born: Epsilon Xi / Zeta Chi, SIUC
Raised: Minneapolis/St. Paul Alumnae
Reaffirmed: Glen Ellyn Area Alumnae
All in the MIGHTY MIDWEST REGION!

Last edited by ladygreek; 08-29-2005 at 12:59 AM.
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old 08-27-2005, 09:29 PM
PsychTau2 PsychTau2 is offline
GreekChat Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Out of Arkansas, into VIRGINIA!!
Posts: 303
Quote:
Originally posted by AXiD670
This is slightly off topic, but...

In my searching, I found this thread that talks about the original incident. It mentions Tracie Massey was the Greek Advisor at Plymouth State at the time of the incident. Is this the same Tracie Massey who is now Coordinator of Greek Affairs at UNC-Wilmington?
Yes. Unfortunately she's still caught up in all of this (a wonderful woman I might add!), so let's be considerate of that.

What isn't going to help these girls out was that since they were members of a national organization, it could be used against them that they had received plenty of information regarding hazing and risk management. Whether they chose to use it or not is up to them, however.

This story makes my stomach hurt.

PsychTau
Reply With Quote
  #11  
Old 08-27-2005, 09:36 PM
PsychTau2 PsychTau2 is offline
GreekChat Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Out of Arkansas, into VIRGINIA!!
Posts: 303
Quote:
Originally posted by Munchkin03
What happens when you sue a local? Since they usually don't have the insurance that national or even regional groups do, can you really get any money?
DISCLAIMER: I am not a lawyer.

From what I understand, if there was no insurance policy that would cover this all the members of the local would be responsible for paying the settlement. They would have to divide it up amongst themselves. I could be wrong...I guess it depends on exactly how the suit was worded. It may only list certain members and not the entire organization, especially since there's no real alumnae base.


Quote:
If the sorority was underground, can the university even be held liable for the actions of unrecognized groups?
Ummmm....I'm not a lawyer, and I have my theories that I'd rather not discuss (gained from discussing this case and similar cases with other professionals). I think for negligence to be proven, one must have some sort of prior knowledge and fail to act on that knowledge. One of our GC lawyers could probably address this issue better than I.

PsychTau
Reply With Quote
  #12  
Old 08-28-2005, 09:10 PM
Aphigal Aphigal is offline
GreekChat Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2001
Posts: 725
My friends sister actually covered the initial story for our main RI paper. Kelly was from RI.

While the sorority was "unrecognized" it is quoted in the paper by the GA that there were "4 unrecognized sororities and 4 unrecognized fraternities" so basically you have a situation in which 50% of the greek population is "unrecognized"

Anyway here is the link to tha article
http://www.projo.com/westbay/content...e25.a13bc.html
and if you go to
http://www.projo.com
there are more.
Reply With Quote
  #13  
Old 08-29-2005, 10:27 AM
33girl 33girl is offline
Moderator
 
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Hotel Oceanview
Posts: 34,519
Quote:
Originally posted by Munchkin03
What happens when you sue a local? Since they usually don't have the insurance that national or even regional groups do, can you really get any money?
That's exactly what I was thinking. Blood from a stone, blah blah blah. I guess they could garnish wages or something.

There were only 3 women (Dalton, Lucca and another woman not named in the story) who were terminated by ASA HQ. Everyone else who left the sorority at that time self-terminated and I'm not sure how many of them wound up in SKO.

ETA, in answer to PinkyPhiMu's question, these 3 got terminated and then 14 more sisters left. The ASA chapter continued for some time after this incident. The chapter WAS NOT closed at the same time this happened or as a direct result of this happening.

And I think, in this case, the school was definitely at fault for knowing there were unofficial groups out there and just saying "they're not recognized" instead of trying to bring them into the fold. I could say more but I am going to shut up now.
__________________
It is all 33girl's fault. ~DrPhil

Last edited by 33girl; 08-29-2005 at 11:51 AM.
Reply With Quote
  #14  
Old 08-29-2005, 10:29 AM
AGDee AGDee is offline
GreekChat Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Michigan
Posts: 15,821
Keep in mind that our insurance only covers things if we followed all the risk management guidelines. If we don't, then we're left high and dry too.
Reply With Quote
  #15  
Old 08-29-2005, 12:58 PM
MysticCat MysticCat is offline
GreekChat Member
 
Join Date: May 2002
Location: A dark and very expensive forest
Posts: 12,731
Quote:
Originally posted by PsychTau2
DISCLAIMER: I am not a lawyer.

From what I understand, if there was no insurance policy that would cover this all the members of the local would be responsible for paying the settlement. They would have to divide it up amongst themselves. I could be wrong...I guess it depends on exactly how the suit was worded. It may only list certain members and not the entire organization, especially since there's no real alumnae base.
It would also depend on factors such as whether the local sorority was incorporated.
__________________
AMONG MEN HARMONY
1898
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off



All times are GMT -4. The time now is 12:54 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, vBulletin Solutions Inc.