HOUGHTON – A former Michigan Technological University fraternity chapter is scheduled to go into mediation in June with a student accusing them of injuring him during a 2013 hazing incident.

If mediation is unsuccessful, a supplemental pretrial is scheduled in Houghton County Circuit Court in July.

The student is seeking more than $25,000 in damages from the Beta chapter of Theta Tau, where the student was pledging in October 2013. When he arrived at the house, he said in a pretrial statement, he was taken to the basement and made to exercise without breaks or hydration.

The student suffered serious injuries to his kidneys, and was unable to attend school for two weeks, according to the statement. He is still partially incapacitated, the document said.

“The defendant’s members conducted the initiation rite within the scope and course of their membership,” the pretrial statement said. “Beta Chapter of Theta Tau, Inc., is responsible for its members’ action and/or conduct under the respondent superior doctrine.”

In an affirmative defense, the Beta Chapter responded by saying the chapter had not assumed care over the student, and that any action the student suffered was through his own negligence.

The Beta Chapter denied a dangerous condition existed on the property; if there was one, it said, it was “open and obvious.”

“If Plaintiff sustained damages as alleged in the Complaint (which Defendant denies), then the same were caused or contributed to by others over whom Defendant had no control and for whom Defendant is not responsible,” it stated. “… [A]ny injury and/or damages Plaintiff suffered were caused solely, primarily and/or contributorily by his own carelessness, negligence and/or recklessness, and Defendant’s liability should be eliminated or reduced accordingly.”

The student’s attorney, Vincent Petrucelli, and Nels Christopherson of Marquette, attorney for Theta Tau’s Beta Chapter, could not be reached for comment.

Michigan Tech suspended the chapter for five years in December 2013 for violating the university’s alcohol, endangerment, community order, disruptive behavior and hazing provisions, according to the Michigan Tech website. In February 2014, it was found to have violated alcohol provisions and to have failed to comply with the terms of the suspension. It was then suspended indefinitely, and barred from requesting reinstatement for five years.