UC Berkeley student files lawsuit after frat party fall
Bandna Bhatti, then 21, was just weeks from graduating when she fell 14 feet from a backyard stairway landing onto the concrete below.
A young woman who was paralyzed after a catastrophic fall at a UC Berkeley fraternity during a "grossly overcrowded" party on Cal Day in April has filed a lawsuit seeking damages, court papers show.
Bandna Bhatti, then 21, was just weeks from graduating when she fell 14 feet from a steel backyard stairway landing onto the concrete below. The accident happened April 19.
After the injury, supporters raised more than $130,000 to help her, and she has since made progress in her recovery, according to her online posts.
According to the lawsuit, which was filed Monday, Bhatti "suffered catastrophic injuries" in the fall, "including, but not limited to: spinal cord injury causing paralysis, skull fracture, traumatic brain injury, multiple rib fractures, scapular fracture, and other serious and permanent injuries."
According to the claim, members of Phi Kappa Tau at 2335 Piedmont Ave. found Bhatti motionless on the ground "clearly distressed, incapacitated, and in need of emergency medical attention."
Instead of calling 911, they picked her up, carried her into the frat house and put her on a couch "without any spinal precautions," the suit alleges.
Fraternity members then set out to find Bhatti's friends so they could help her.
"However, said fraternity members did not disclose that Plaintiff had suffered a multi-story fall," the attorneys wrote. "Instead, they mischaracterized Plaintiff as 'too drunk,' or otherwise suffering from intoxication."
One member of the fraternity, a Cal alum who is named in the lawsuit, "instructed Bandna's friends that Bandna needed to be removed from the property so the Chapter would not get in trouble," according to the claim.
Bhatti's friends then carried her to their home several blocks away instead of calling for help, the lawsuit alleges.
According to the suit, the fraternity's failure to call for help and its "misrepresentations" to Bhatti's friends resulted in a more severe medical outcome for her, including permanent disability.
The lawsuit also alleges a documented history of awareness by the fraternity, including written notice, that the exterior stairway was unsafe, "lacked compliant guardrails" and "required immediate repair" — but still "allowed fraternity members and guests to use the landing as a social platform and gathering space, including during large events such as Cal Day."
The suit names Phi Kappa Tau (the local and national chapters as well as a fraternity foundation), the University of California regents and others as defendants in the case.
The claim also notes that the city of Berkeley and UC officials increased scrutiny of exterior elements such as stairways following the 2015 balcony collapse that left six students dead and seven injured (including one woman who died years later).
Writing on LinkedIn in October, Bhatti thanked her supporters and shared some of her efforts in her path to recovery, noting that she was ready to begin looking for work.
"These months have completely transformed how I see myself and the world around me," she wrote. "Through countless hours of therapy … I’ve started doing things I once thought were impossible. Every milestone, no matter how small, has reminded me that progress isn’t always linear, but it’s always worth it."
Bhatti's tragic fall in April happened two years after another UC Berkeley student, Jasmine Wang, fell off the roof at a different UC Berkeley fraternity during a Cal Day party. Wang survived but sustained serious injuries. She later filed her own lawsuit.
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Emilie Raguso
