Court awards $507,000

A judgment for $507,129 was awarded Friday to Megan Mitchell of Wenatchee by Superior Court Judge David Frazier. The judgment followed a verdict reached June 19 after hearing an eight-day trial. The judgment motion was presented by Thomas O’Connell, Wenatchee attorney who filed the damage suit on behalf of Mitchell against Theta Xi fraternity in August of 2011.

The suit sought damages sustained by Mitchell from a Sept. 28, 2008, fall at the fraternity located in the 700 block of Opal Street on college hill in Pullman.

A graduate of Eastmont High at Wenatchee, Mitchell was a junior at WSU at the time of the 2008 fall. The suit sought damages sustained when she fell from a fire escape on the second level of the fraternity onto a concrete surface.

The jury ruled Theta Xi chapter was negligent in maintaining the fire escape and determined Mitchell did not contribute to the negligence by her actions that night.

The jury awarded Mitchell $96,529 in medical expenses, $45,000 in lost earnings and $365,000 for pain and suffering as a result of her injuries.

Mitchell was injured when she opened a second-floor door to the exterior fire escape and stepped through a ladder hole next to the fire escape platform.

Attorneys for the fraternity contended Mitchell was trespassing in the fraternity at the time she fell. They contended she had been to a party at the fraternity earlier that night and left for another location. They said she had later returned to the fraternity in the early morning hours and by then the party had ceased.

The court earlier had dropped the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity organization from the list of defendants. Phi Sigma Kappa was the owner of the building, but their WSU chapter was terminated in 2005. The organization later leased the building to Theta Xi.

The court earlier ruled Theta Xi breached its agreement with Phi Sigma Kappa by failing to pay legal costs as specified in the lease agreement.