State Supreme Court Rules WSU Owed a Duty to Protect a Freshman From the Fraternity He Was Pledging

The Washington Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Washington State University owed a legal duty of care to Sam Martinez, the 19-year-old Bellevue freshman who died of acute alcohol intoxication during a 2019 fraternity hazing ritual, sending his parents' wrongful death case back to King County Superior Court.

The 5-4 decision in Martinez & Houtz v. Washington State University affirms a January 2025 ruling by Division One of the Court of Appeals.

The court was clear about what it did not decide.

"We express no opinion as to whether WSU did or did not breach that duty," Justice Salvador A. Mungia wrote for the majority. "This appeal only addresses the issue of whether WSU owed Sam such a duty. We hold that it did."

What the Case Is About

Martinez, a Newport High School graduate, pledged Gamma Chi, WSU's Alpha Tau Omega chapter, the summer before college.

On the night of Nov. 11, 2019, pledges were called to clean the chapter's off-campus "live-out" house as a ruse for the annual "Big-Little" night, according to the opinion. 

Each pledge was expected to share an alcoholic drink brought by an upperclassman "big brother." The group moved to the chapter house about an hour later and kept drinking. Martinez died early the next morning.

WSU issued an interim loss of recognition to Gamma Chi three days later and ended its recognition through May 2026. The national fraternity revoked the chapter's charter.

His parents, Hector Martinez and Jolayne Houtz, sued in 2020. King County Superior Court Judge Kristin V. Richardson granted WSU summary judgment in March 2022, finding no duty.

The family settled with the fraternity defendants for an undisclosed amount, according to prior news accounts, and WSU alone sought review in the Supreme Court.

The Legal Question

The case turned on Restatement (Second) of Torts § 315(a), which can impose a duty on a defendant with a "definite, established, and continuing relationship" with a third party and some ability to control that party's conduct.

The majority found both present. WSU has recognized Gamma Chi since 1911, and the two signed a Relationship Agreement annually.

In exchange for the university's name and trademark, contact information for incoming freshmen and philanthropy funds, fraternities accepted rules barring alcohol at social events on chapter property and barring minors from drinking at chapter functions "regardless of the function's location."

A 2012 WSU presidential task force found Greek students, first-year men in particular, at significantly higher risk of alcohol-related harm and reported that 18 of 18 Greek chapters had been sanctioned for an alcohol violation in a single year.

"It should surprise no one that a house run by young men and full of other young men, many away from home for the first time in their lives, is fertile ground for abusing alcohol and engaging in dangerous initiation rituals," Mungia wrote. "It was certainly no surprise to WSU."

A Divided Court

Chief Justice Debra Stephens and Justices Steven González and G. Helen Whitener signed the majority, along with Justice Pro Tempore Mary Yu. Justices Raquel Montoya-Lewis, Colleen Melody and Theodore Angelis did not participate.

Justice Pro Tempore Barbara Madsen wrote the dissent, joined by Justices Charles Johnson and Sheryl Gordon McCloud and Justice Pro Tempore Tracy Staab.

Madsen argued the result cannot be squared with Barlow v. State, the court's 2024 decision limiting a university's duty to campus and university-controlled activities.

"The majority conflates WSU's ability to discipline fraternities for their off-campus conduct with control over their off-campus conduct," she wrote, calling the arrangement a contractual business relationship rather than a special one. 

The Relationship Agreement itself, she noted, says WSU does not control, supervise or direct chapter activities.

What Happens Next

The Attorney General's Office represented WSU; Seattle's Schroeter Goldmark Bender represented the family. On remand, WSU can still contest whether it breached the duty and whether any breach caused Martinez's death.