Parents of LSU student awarded $6.1 million in frat hazing death

THE NEW YORK TIMES The parents of a Louisiana State University student who died in 2017 after an on-campus hazing event have been awarded $6.1 million by a jury in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, according to the family’s lawyer.

The student, Maxwell Gruver, 18, of Roswell, Georgia, died the day after he took part in a Phi Delta Theta fraternity ritual that required pledges to take several threeto five-second chugs from a bottle of Diesel, a 190-proof liquor, according to court documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana.

According to court documents, an autopsy determined that Gruver had a blood alcohol content of 0.495%, which is more than six times the legal limit in the state for drivers older than 21.

On Wednesday, the jury reached a verdict in the case against one of the former fraternity members and his insurance company, the lawyer, Jonathon Fazzola, who works for the Fierberg National Law Group, said.

The family, he added, had already been paid a “significant sum” of money from settlements reached with the 17 other defendants initially named in the civil suit, including LSU and the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He said the family planned to use the funds to continue supporting the mission of the Max Gruver Foundation, an organization founded by his parents that aims to end hazing on college campuses.

According to court documents, $6 million was awarded to Gruver’s parents for damages suffered as a result of their son’s death. An additional $100,000 was awarded to them for the “pain and suffering, fright, fear or mental anguish” that Gruver endured during the episode .