Yale University’s Sigma Epsilon chapter and its members have been named in a suit relating to the death of one woman and the injury of another that occurred at a 2011 tailgate.

Yale University Fraternity Sued

At a tailgate for 2011’s faceoff between college football's oldest rivals, Harvard and Yale, a U-Haul truck driven by Sigma Epsilon fraternity member Brendan Ross that was carrying kegs of beer crashed in a parking lot outside Yale’s stadium in New Haven, Conn. The accident resulted in the death of 30-year-old Nancy Barry and extensive injuries to Yale student Sarah Short.

A new lawsuit, filed by Short and Barry’s estate, is going after the Yale’s Sigma Epsilon frat, as well as over 80 of its members. Lawyers for the prosecution claim that since the Sigma Epsilon fraternity organization disowned the chapter, they were left with the option of specifically going after the Yale branch and its members.

Prosecuting Attorneys Slam SigEp Organization

“It’s really a double whammy for the Yale members,” Paul Edwards, an attorney for Barry’s estate told Bloomberg.

“They’re facing lawsuit simply because the national organization failed to take reasonable steps to create a reasonable structure to protect them,” Edwards added to ABC News. “No amount of money will bring Nancy back. We’re looking to hold people accountable and effect changes so mistakes like this will never happen again.”

Joel Faxon, an attorney for Short, echoed Edwards sentiment, and said that the SigEp organization’s insurance company claimed, “the national and the local have nothing to do with one another.”

“It’s not true,” Faxon continued to Bloomberg. “But that’s the position they take. That leaves us with having to sue all these kids.”

Yale has not commented on the latest suit, although the university did take a few measures to reduce the risk of a similar incident in the future. No longer are kegs or oversized vehicles – like a U-Haul – permissible at campus events.

– Chelsea Regan

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