Phi Kap Lawsuit

Fellow Phi Kaps, your help is needed to raise money to get the Alumni Association out of a legal jam.

The short version is the fraternity is being sued by a slip & fall that happened outside the house on the College Ave. sidewalk during the winter of 2014.  The alleged victim is suing multiple parties, among them both the undergrads and the Alumni Association.  The undergrads are covered by the legal services of our National fraternity, however the Alumni Association LLC is not.  Dave Mann and myself are listed as officers on the LLC and need a lawyer to rid us of any fault and to protect our personal asset as the LLC is intended to do.

Please contribute to the fund to help cover the attorny retainer.  Any remaining retainer will be donated back to the fraternity.  Thank You!

==========================

In more detail...Circa 2008, the landlord of 52 College Ave, where the fraternity has been housed since about 2007, would only allow the rental agreement to the undergrads if the Alumni Association co-signed the lease. Dave Severino and Dave Mann went about getting an LLC set up. The intent at the time was to try to add members as investors to the Alumni Housing LLC with the eventual goal to purchase a property. That never came to pass but the undergrads continued to lease the house. Listed as cosigners on the lease are officers of the undergrad chapter and the Alumni LLC.

Fast forward some years to 2014 and allegedly a female student was walking on College Ave and slipped and fell in front of the house sustaining an injury. Dave Mann became aware of the lawsuit in May of 2017 when someone showed up at his door on a Saturday morning an served him with a summons. (Dave and Dave are the two members of the LLC). Rest assured, a lot of time has already been spent to verify that yes in fact, this lawsuit is real, and it needs to be responded to.

Which brings us to the ask. The undergrad chapter has insurance and their defense will be handled by the insurance company. the insurance company has declined to defend the Alumni LLC. Even though the Alumni Housing LLC has no assets, there is risk that if the suit is not properly defended, and left to a default decision, the Dave and Dave might be pursued personally since they are the members of the LLC. We need to raise $5,000 to hire an attorney, or find one who will handle it pro bono. In the absence of a pro bon defense, we need to raise $5,000 to cover legal costs. Of course many more details regarding this situation are available on request. Just reach out to Dave Mann or Dave Severino.

Please help if you can.