Personal injury lawyers involved in the Tucker Hipps case respond to allegations that the defendants allegations that Hipps own negligence caused his death. Clemson student Tucker Hipps’ death was caused by his “voluntarily jumping into the water” from a bridge over Lake Hartwell, and resulted from his own “negligence,” Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity, Inc., alleges in its answer to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Hipps’ family.
The national fraternity also filed a motion to dismiss the case against Clemson’s former SigEp chapter, because it had been dissolved by the time the lawsuit was filed. Fraternity members “provided false information to university staff” and were implicated by text messages for having violated university and fraternity policy, the motion says in an attached letter.
Documents filed at the Pickens County courthouse last week also give the responses of Clemson University and two members of the fraternity who took part in the early morning run across the State 93 bridge last Sept. 22 during which Hipps died, all of which allege that Hipps’s own “negligence” caused his death.
The wrongful death suit, which seeks $25 million in damages, along with a separate but identical $25 million personal injury suit, claims that fraternity member Robert Carter King confronted Hipps on the bridge about Hipps’ failure to bring breakfast as he had been told, the lawsuit says.
Then, Hipps, who was still a pledge with the fraternity, went over the bridge and into the lake, the suit alleges.
In King’s answer, attorneys say King shined his flashlight in order to see the fraternity members running back across the lake on the parallel bridge and deny that he was looking for Hipps.
Starr’s answer denies that Starr ever told anyone that Hipps would be “held responsible” for the pledges not bringing biscuits.
Starr also denies “ever jumping off one or more bridges over Lake Hartwell and swimming to shore during any Local Chapter participation.” The lawsuit alleges that the fraternity had a long tradition of “requiring, pressuring, encouraging and forcing” pledges to jump off bridges into the lake and swim to shore.
The lawsuit never made specific allegations as to how Hipps ended up in the water, and the answers provide little information other than denials of involvement.
An autopsy showed that Hipps, a sophomore and graduate of Wren High School, died of head injuries consistent with having hit rip-rap rocks in the shallow water near the end of the bridge.
His body was found on the Oconee County side of the lake, although investigation later determined that he had gone into the water on the Pickens County side.
Fraternity members called the campus police that afternoon saying they were looking for Hipps. They said he was last seen lagging behind as he was running across the bridge.
The Oconee County Sheriff’s Office is continuing to investigate but assigned the case to a cold-case specialist.
Clemson University, in its answer to the lawsuit, denied allegation that the fraternity run violated university policy.
“This defendant has no knowledge as to how the incident resulting in Tucker’s death occurred,” it says.
But it argues that, “injuries and damages sustained by the Plaintiffs were caused by the negligence and/or willfulness of the Plaintiff’s Decedent,” Tucker Hipps.