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Penn State seeks to buy frat house in pledge death

A lawsuit is asking a court to order a fraternity house where a pledge suffered fatal injuries during a night of drinking and hazing last year to be sold to Penn State University.

The complaint filed Monday in Centre County argues that a 1928 deed gives the university the right to force the sale of the Beta Theta Pi property and house once it stops being used as a fraternity.

The school wants the price to be set by an arbitrator or another court-mandated process, and it says the fraternity house has disputed whether it has the right under the nearly century-old deed to compel the sale.

The national fraternity closed down, and the university decertified the fraternity chapter after the February 2017 death of 19-year-old Tim Piazza, of Lebanon, N.J.

Piazza’s death resulted in related criminal charges against about two dozen fraternity members and led lawmakers to pass anti-hazing legislation.

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