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 The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on the
one-year anniversary of the death of 19-year-old Armando Villa, a
student at California State University, Northridge.
"It's been a year since Armando's death and we still have no
answers," Villa's mother, Betty Serrato, said in a statement. "No
one has stepped forward to tell us what happened to my son. I am
angry and terribly sad."
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department continues to investigate
the death.
Villa's death followed a number of high-profile hazing fatalities in
the United States due to physical abuse and forced alcohol
consumption, which placed fraternities under heightened scrutiny.
When he died, Villa was "pledging" or joining a chapter of the Pi
Kappa Phi fraternity and was made to hike in the Angeles National
Forest, authorities have said.
 Last year, California State University president Dianne Harrison
said an investigative report ordered by the university into Villa's
death made clear that members of Pi Kappa Phi engaged in hazing.
Villa and other pledges were forced to hike up a peak on a hot
summer day and they ran out of water on the way back down, according
to an investigative report by the university released last year.
Some in the group became disoriented and dehydrated and may have
been suffering from heat stroke, and Villa ran ahead and was found
collapsed in a culvert before he died, the report said.
Villa was forced to buy discount shoes that were too small for him,
leaving his feet with blisters, according to the report.
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The lawsuit by Villa's family named the university, which is located
in the Northridge suburb of Los Angeles, Harrison, the Pi Kappa Phi
fraternity, its former chapter at the university and members of the
fraternity.
The negligence lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of damages.
A representative from the university could not be reached for
comment.
A spokesman for the college told City News Service that university
officials had not seen the lawsuit.
"However, we can say that any claim that CSUN was in any way
responsible for the tragic death of Armando Villa is untrue," the
spokesman told City News Service in a statement.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Ken Wills)
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