Teresa Spagna v. Collin Gill, No. 20-3697 (8th Cir. 2022)
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Plaintiff was seriously injured when a pledge of the defendant fraternity snuck into her room and slit her throat after a night of drinking. The plaintiff filed tort claims against the fraternity and related parties (“the fraternity”). Plaintiff claimed primary and vicarious liability.
Applying Nebraska law, the Eighth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of the plaintiff’s primary liability claims, finding that the attack was not a foreseeable result of the fraternity’s forced hazing. The attacker’s criminal conduct was an intervening cause, severing the chain of causation. As to the plaintiff’s vicarious liability claims, the court held that the plaintiff failed to prove that any supposed agents of the fraternity were negligent under Nebraska law.
The Eighth Circuit also held that social host liability does not apply. Nebraska’s Minor Alcoholic Liquor Liability Act provides a cause of action related to the “negligence of an intoxicated minor.” Here, the attacker was convicted of second-degree assault, which requires a finding that he acted knowingly or intentionally. This precludes a finding that the attacker acted negligently.
Court Description: [Erickson, Author, with Benton and Kelly, Circuit Judges] Civil case - Torts. In action alleging the negligence of the National Fraternity of Phi Kappa Psi and its Creighton chapter and members caused plaintiff's injuries by forcing a pledge to drink to the point of incapacity, in which state he attacked plaintiff with a knife, even if the court accepts that defendants collectively owed a duty to plaintiff and breached it, her amended complaint fails to adequately allege under Nebraska law that her injuries were foreseeable results of defendants' alleged breach and that the pledge's assault was not an efficient intervening cause; with respect to vicarious liability, plaintiff failed to plausibly allege the supposed agents in this case were negligent under Nebraska law; plaintiff's alter ego liability claim fails for the same reason; plaintiff could not state a claim under Nebraska's Minor Alcoholic Liquor Liability Act because the Act only covers the negligence of the minor and here the pledge pleaded guilty to a criminal act which could only be committed intentionally or knowingly.
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