Fraternity May Be Liable For Sex Assault

The Maine Supreme Judicial court has reversed judgment in favor of a fraternity sued by an invited guest who was the victim of a sexual assault,

The allegations

On September 17, 2010, Gamma Nu hosted a party at its [Delta Tau Delta] fraternity house that was restricted to invited guests only. Brown, a UMO student, was invited to the party by Joshua Clukey, a member of Gamma Nu. Brown arrived at the fraternity house between 11:00 and 11:30 p.m. and found Clukey. Brown and Clukey, who had both been drinking alcoholic beverages, went upstairs to Clukey’s room, past a fraternity member whose function was to limit access to the upper floors to residents and their guests. Inside his room, Clukey sexually assaulted Brown and prevented her from leaving the room for several minutes.

Holding

because we conclude that DTD owed a duty to its collegiate chapters’ social invitees sufficient to support Brown’s claim based on premises liability, we vacate that portion of the summary judgment. We affirm the summary judgment on the remaining claims against DTD. We also affirm and do not further discuss the summary judgment as to DTDNHC [National Housing Corportation]because there is nothing in the record suggesting that the property-holding corporation had a duty, based on premises liability or otherwise, to Gamma Nu’s social invitees.

The case contains an extensive discussion of the liability issues.

Justice Clifford dissented. (Mike Frisch)