Fassett v. Delta Kappa Epsilon

807 F.2d 1150, 55 U.S.L.W. 2333
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedDecember 5, 1986
DocketNos. 85-1652, 85-1653, 86-1102 and 86-1103
StatusPublished
Cited by183 cases

This text of 807 F.2d 1150 (Fassett v. Delta Kappa Epsilon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fassett v. Delta Kappa Epsilon, 807 F.2d 1150, 55 U.S.L.W. 2333 (3d Cir. 1986).

Opinions

OPINION OF THE COURT

GARTH, Circuit Judge:

The four cases before this court arise out of a tragic accident whose fact pattern is disturbingly common. In the early morning hours of Sunday, September 26, 1982, seventeen year old Anne Fassett, nineteen year old Monica Buckley and eighteen year old Corbin Evans were involved in a traffic accident when Evans, while driving his car, collided with a pickup truck operated by Nicholas D’Allessandro. Evans, Fassett, and Buckley had just left a fraternity sponsored party where Evans had allegedly consumed an indeterminate quantity of aleo-[1153]*1153hol. Monica Buckley was killed in the accident, and Anne Fassett was rendered a quadriplegic.

Anne Fassett brought a diversity action in the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against Christopher Poch, Bruce Turgiss, Kevin Zac-chea, Christopher Troy and Michael Bacha. John Buckley, Jr., the administrator of the estate of Monica Buckley, brought a similar suit against defendants Poch, Turgiss, Zacchea, Troy and Daniel Hoffend.1 The two cases (before this court as appeals 85-1652 and 85-1653) were consolidated for purposes of trial before the Honorable Louis C. Bechtle. Fassett and Buckley sought to hold the named defendants liable for the injuries they suffered under Pennsylvania tort law.

The named defendants filed a series of cross claims against each other, and they also impleaded a number of third party defendants. Corbin Evans and Nicholas D’Allessandro, the drivers of the two vehicles, were joined as third party defendants in both actions.

In the Fassett action, Daniel Hoffend was joined as a third party defendant, and defendant Michael Bacha impleaded individual members of the Villanova Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity.

Similarly, in the Buckley action, Christopher Troy impleaded Michael Bacha and numerous individual members of the Villa-nova Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity.

Many of these first and third party defendants filed motions for summary judgment. The district court directed Fassett and Buckley (as well as any defendants whp raised claims against third parties) to submit written “offers of proof” to explain the basis of their theory of liability against each of the defendants. These offers of proof were designed to assist the court in ruling on the summary judgment motions. Appendix at 80. After the written offers of proof were submitted, the court held a hearing at which it allowed these offers of proof to be supplemented orally.

The offers of proof alleged that Evans had been drinking while in the apartment leased by defendants Michael Bacha, Kevin Zacchea, Christopher Troy, and Bruce Tur-giss, and that these four defendants had agreed to allow their apartment to be used as the site for a fraternity party where alcohol would be served to approximately 200 minors. More specifically, it was alleged that Troy was an organizer of the party and that he served as one of the bartenders. It was alleged that Turgiss was a “passive organizer” of the party and that he had worked the door.2 It was alleged that Bacha, who was not a member of the Villanova Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, nevertheless acted in concert with his fellow roommates and invited the fraternity to use his apartment for a party during which intoxicants were served to minors.

It was alleged that Poch was the president of the fraternity and an organizer of the party. Additionally, it was alleged that he was one of the people who drove into Maryland to purchase alcohol for the party. Although Hoffend was not at the party, it was alleged that he was the treasurer of the fraternity and that he wrote a blank check to be used for the purchase of the alcohol consumed at the party.3

[1154]*1154The district court concluded that, as a matter of Pennsylvania law, a defendant would have had to have physically served (i.e. directly handed) an alcoholic beverage to Evans in order to be civilly liable. Therefore, as to each individual defendant, unless it was specifically alleged that he had acted as a bartender or otherwise served alcohol to guests on the night in question, the court on September 18, 1985 granted summary judgment in his favor.4

Troy was the only remaining first party defendant in both cases. Rather than proceed to trial against Troy alone, Fassett and Buckley, pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 41(a)(1), filed a stipulation of dismissal without prejudice against Troy. Because Troy was the sole remaining first party defendant, Fassett and Buckley assumed that this action would dispose of all outstanding claims (against both Troy and the third party defendants he had named) and thereby render the district court’s earlier order final for purposes of appeal.

Fassett filed a timely notice of appeal from the district court’s order of September 18, 1985, which had granted summary judgment in favor of Poch, Bacha and Zac-chea, and which had dismissed the complaint against Turgiss. On the same day, Buckley also filed her notice of appeal, in which she stated that she was appealing the order granting summary judgment to all of the first party defendants in her suit and the order “granting summary judgment in favor of Michael Bacha, dismissing the third party complaint as to all of the remaining third party defendants ...” Appendix at 575.

It is apparently on the basis of this latter statement in Buckley’s notice of appeal that the third party defendants were originally considered to be parties to this appeal. The vast majority of the third party defendants filed motions for dismissal with this court. These motions were granted by a motions panel of this court “without prejudice to defendants’ rights to reinstate third party complaints in the event the district court’s orders are reversed.”5 Because the appeals against the third party defendants were dismissed, we did not consider any briefs which had previously been filed by them. As a consequence, no third party defendants appeared at oral argument of these appeals.

After the record was complete for purposes of appeal, Fassett and Buckley filed a joint motion, pursuant to Fed.R.App.P. 10(e), to augment the record on appeal with, inter alia, certain portions of the deposition testimony of one Christopher Wackerman. Wackerman testified that, on the night in question, he had seen defend[1155]*1155ant Bruce Turgiss serving alcohol to party guests. This deposition was not filed of record at the time the district court rendered its final judgment.

By order dated January 14, 1986, the district court granted the motion to augment the record. Consolidated appeals numbered 86-1102 and 86-1103 raise Bruce Turgiss’ separate claim against Fassett and Buckley, that the district court erred in ordering this augmentation of the record on appeal with material that was not before the district court when its final decision was rendered.

I.

Before considering the arguments raised by Fassett and Buckley, we address sua sponte our jurisdiction. Although the parties have not briefed the issue, we cannot ignore matters that bring into question the existence of federal jurisdiction. Lake County Estates v.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
807 F.2d 1150, 55 U.S.L.W. 2333, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fassett-v-delta-kappa-epsilon-ca3-1986.