USC Sheds Off-Campus Frat Party Injury Case

The University of Southern California had no duty to protect the public from behavior at an off-campus fraternity party where a woman was seriously injured, a federal appeals court in California ruled.

Carson Barenborg, a student at Loyola Marymount University, was dancing on a seven-foot-high platform at the party in 2013 when another party-goer bumped her onto the ground.

The university might have had a duty to protect Barenborg from the conduct of a third party if it had a “special relationship” with her as a USC student, but here she was an invited guest on premises outside the university’s ...