FRESNO — A freshman at Fresno State University died Sunday after a night of drinking at an off-campus fraternity house, prompting university officials to suspend recognition of the fraternity.

Philip Dhanens, 18, of Bakersfield began pledging to join the Theta Chi fraternity last week, university spokeswoman Shirley Armbruster said.

Fresno State officials say Dhanens, who is from Bakersfield, had just accepted an invitation to join the fraternity last week.

Depending on the outcome of the investigation, the university can either put the Theta Chi fraternity on probation, suspend the group, or revoke their recognition as a Fresno State student organization altogether.

Individual students could also be punished.

This isn’t the first fraternity-related drinking death at Fresno State in recent years.

In 2006, 19-year-old Danny Daniels died at the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house, after several days of heavy drinking.

His blood alcohol level was more than four times the legal limit.

The fraternity was banned from the university for five years.

Fraternity Lawsuits Becoming More Common 

This particular incident is in a growing number of lawsuits concerning underage students-often a fraternity pledge or member- who engage in “binge drinking” as part of a fraternity ritual or other social gathering. These lawsuits often focus on the fact that members of the fraternity have not taken sufficient action to protect the injured party.

This type of wrongful death claim involves seeing someone in a position of peril, without assistance, they will not extricate themselves. Often, the other people involved [take action] to prevent discovery of the [drunken] individual. This is not your garden variety negligence lawsuit.

In addition to the most basic question-whether  the fraternity and the national fraternity entity can be sued- there several other key factors to be considered, including:

• Liability laws in the relevant state
• University code of conduct and other policies
• Details about the individual’s condition
• The volume of alcohol consumed
•  Evidence of whether the person was pressured into consuming the alcohol.
• The student’s appearance according to other people who were present in comparison to what a very intoxicated person would be expected to look like .
•  Medical evidence about the individual’s status when he received medical attention.

The term “wrongful death” is defined as the death of an individual as a result of the negligence, carelessness, intentional act of another individual, corporation, company or entity.  Filing a proper wrongful death claim is extremely difficult and complex for families because they are not only dealing with their grief over the death of a beloved family member, but also complex issues of compensation as well.  Wrongful death claims are usually sought after by relatives, siblings, or members of the decedent’s estate who have lost a considerable amount of money as well as loss of support and grief due to the wrongful death of the decedent.

The laws regarding wrongful death cases are complex and include many facets of the law.  It is vital to surviving family members to seek the advice of an experienced wrongful death lawyer such as Gary A Kessler at the Law Offices of Gary A Kessler to protect your rights and those of your loved ones.

The California wrongful death attorney Gary A Kessler and the Law Offices of Gary A Kessler are compassionate and fully understand that you are attempting to cope with extreme grief and sorrow associated with the loss of a loved one.  The Law Offices of Gary A Kessler carefully selects its wrongful death cases so that we may give you (the client) the substantial personal attention necessary to obtain a successful result for your wrongful death case.

The Law Offices of Gary A Kessler is prepared to front all costs required for a thorough investigation and expert witnesses to prepare for trial of your case.  As in all wrongful death and serious personal injury cases, we advance all legal costs to prepare and present our client’s claim, and receive for our services only a percentage of what we recover for our attorney fees on their behalf.  Upon settlement our costs shall be reimbursed to us from the gross recovery.  If there is no recovery, no attorneys fees or costs are owed to our firm.