Family settles suit, funds video after frat fun turns deadly

The family of Phanta “Jack” Phoummarath, a University of Texas freshman who died in 2005 as a result of binge drinking at a fraternity party allegedly involving hazing, will use part of the $4.2 million it received to settle its suit against the fraternity and other defendants to fund “Enough Is Enough,” an educational video.  “We do not want Jack’s death to be in vain and by this educational program, we hope to save families in the future from the great despair we have suffered from the loss of our youngest son,” Khongsavay Phoummarath, Jack's father, writes in the family’s statement announcing the settlement. Watch the video on inmemoryofjack.com. As noted in the family’s statement, it also is working with UT to set up a scholarship of $8,000 to $10,000 a year that will be awarded to a student in Jack's name. Randall O. Sorrels, the family’s attorney, says in an interview that 46 individual defendants and four organizations participated in the settlement of Phoummarath v. Lambda Phi Epsilon, et al., which the family filed in January 2006 in Houston’s 334th District Court.  “We hope that, through this case and these educational opportunities, the dangerous activities that many fraternities sponsor will be curtailed,” says Sorrels, a partner in Houston’s Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Sorrels & Friend. Hunter Barrow, attorney for the national fraternity of Lambda Phi Epsilon and a partner in Thompson & Knight in Houston, says in an interview, “While organizations must be mindful of the actions of their members, all members must be mindful of their personal responsibilities to themselves, their families, friends and fraternity.” Barrow says the national fraternity paid $20,000 to settle the suit. “Our client settled the case for an amount that was nominal and in an amount that was reasonable compared with the cost of preparing and trying the case,” he says. 
-- Mary Alice Robbins