A Massachusetts appeals court held that a fraternity officer was not an insured under CGL and catastrophe policies because his actions fell outside of his fraternity duties and constituted hazing in Royal Surplus Lines Ins. Co. v. Cotton States Mut. Ins. Co., No. 05-P-1035, 2006 WL 2422769 (Mass. App. Ct. Aug. 22, 2006) (unpublished).

 

Scott Krueger died during a pledge initiation event sponsored by the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The event, called Animal House Night, involved watching the movie Animal House and consuming a certain amount of alcoholic beverages. Fraternity members also presented each pledge with a bottle of an alcoholic beverage.

 

Krueger drank until he became intoxicated and fell asleep. A fraternity member later found him, and he had vomited and stopped breathing. He was taken to the hospital but lapsed into a coma and died.

 

Krueger's mother filed a wrongful death suit against the national fraternity, the chapter at MIT, and several fraternity officers, including Richard Conway, who helped organize the event. The fraternity was insured under policies issued by Royal Surplus Lines and Royal Insurance Company of America . Conway 's parents were insured under a homeowners policy issued by Cotton States Mutual.

 

Royal stated that the fraternity and its members were not covered for the suit due to a hazing exclusion, an expected or intended injury exclusion, punitive damages were not covered, and the policies were excess to the individuals' homeowners policies. The insurer also said that fraternity officers would be covered only while acting within the scope of their duties on behalf of the fraternity.

 

While hazing was not a defined term on the policies, the court said that the fraternity's risk management policy defined hazing as “[a]ny action taken or situation created, intentionally, whether on or off fraternity premises, to produce mental or physical discomfort, embarrassment, harassment, or ridicule…” including “…use of alcohol.”

 

Thus, the court determined that the Animal House event “constituted hazing within the commonly understood meaning of the term, and since Krueger's death arose out of the hazing event, the activity fell within the exclusion provisions of the plaintiff's policies.”

 

Conway was not present at the event, but because he authorized its design, he was found to have participated. He did not qualify, however, as an additional insured because he was acting outside the scope of his duties in the fraternity.