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Noteworthy CasesParents of Drowned Student Get $12.6MThe Associated Press MIAMI -- A jury Friday found two fraternity members liable for $12.6 million in damages in the accidental drowning of a first year student at the University of Miami in what attorneys called a hazing death. Chad Meredith, 18, of Indianapolis, drowned in the campus' Lake Osceola on Nov. 5, 2001. He was legally drunk with a bloodalcohol level of 0.13. The jury ordered Kappa Sigma president Travis Montgomery and another fraternity officer, David May, to pay Meredith's parents $6.3 million each. The parents' attorneys said they would tap the fraternity's insurance to collect the money. "This was the verdict the family was waiting for desperately," said David Bianchi, the parents' attorney. "This was a needless death in a fraternity hazing event." Bianchi had asked the jury to issue a $10 million award, but after three hours, the six-member panel came back with a $14 million award. Chad Meredith was found 10 percent responsible, reducing the amount the fraternity members were ordered to pay to $12.6 million. The defendants said they would appeal. As Circuit Judge Ronald Friedman read the jury verdict, Montgomery shook his head and bent his head to his knees. After the judge left the courtroom, Montgomery stood up and lunged toward the plaintiff's table, apparently trying to get at Bianchi, and had to be physically restrained by his defense lawyer and a bailiff. "This was a case unprecedented in Florida," said defense Donald Hardemon. "There is no law in Florida making fraternities liable in hazing cases."
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