Details Emerge on Bogenberger Settlement

Tim Burke, Manley Burke, tburke@manleyburke.com

In its January 2019 issue, Fraternal Law reported on the settlement in the case of the David Bogenberger hazing death in an article entitled, “Largest Ever Settlement Reached in Hazing Case.”[1]

After six years of litigation involving more than 44 defendants, the case settled for $14 million dollars. Fraternal Law Partners has now learned that the overwhelming majority of that settlement was paid by the 44 individual defendants, which included 22 members of the chapter who had been found guilty of misdemeanors, and 22 women who, according to the Illinois Supreme Court, had actively participated in the hazing that resulted in the alcohol poisoning death of David Bogenberger. The Pi Kappa Alpha Chapter at Northern Illinois University where the death occurred was responsible for paying less than 2% of the settlement. The International Fraternity was previously dismissed from the suit, a dismissal upheld by the Illinois Supreme Court.[2]

In fact, more than 98% of the total settlement came from the individuals who engaged in the conduct that led to the death of David Bogenberger.

Thus, in the end it was those individuals who violated the law, broke university policy, and ignored fraternity (and sorority) rules that, appropriately, bore the lion’s share of the settlement burden.

[1] Tim Burke, Largest Ever Settlement Reached in Hazing Case, 158 Fraternal L. 10 (Jan. 2019).

[2] Bogenberger v. Pi Kappa Alpha Corp., Inc., 104 N.E.3d 1110 (Ill. 2018).