The parents of a girl left in coma following a fall from a sorority house window have filed a lawsuit against the Greek society’s president.
Sarah Cox was a junior at Northeastern University when she plummeted 20 feet during a party before her formal.
She has since yet to regain consciousness, parents Batul Kazim and William Cox said in a document, filed this past March, that accused their daughter’s sorority, Alpha Epsilon Phi, of not taking the necessary precaution to protect its members.
The complaint, in turn, names then-chapter President Margaret ‘Maggie’ Scales, property owner Marcia Ramos, and the Ramos Properties company as defendants.
The inclusion of Ramos and her real estate business stemmed from her knowing the apartment building at 2 Judge Street in Roxbury, Massachusetts, was being used by Scales as a ‘sorority house.’
Filed in March nearly a year after the incident, the suit surrounds Sarah Cox (pictured), who was a junior at Northeastern University when she plummeted 20 feet during a party before her formal
The complaint, in turn, names then-chapter President Margaret ‘Maggie’ Scales (seen here) as one of the parties liable for the girl’s injuries, accusing her of not taking the necessary precaution to protect members
‘Sarah Cox’s injuries are catastrophic, and she will require one to one care 24 hours per day and seven days per week on a permanent basis,’ a statement of damages reads.
‘Sarah Cox will require a variety of medical devices and equipment to survive.’
The statement goes on to note how the family’s medical bills have already far exceeded $200,000.
‘[T]he costs of her care will continue to mount for the rest of her life,’ it continues.
The sorority has responded by filing a motion to dismiss the suit, doing so back in July, alleging that the incident that happened during a party on March 31, 2023, around 6pm was Cox’s fault.
‘When you cut through the six negligence counts against the Sorority Defendants in the 170-paragraph Complaint, Plaintiffs’ claim is: “Sarah Cox fell out of a window onto the driveway below,”’ the motion sniped.
‘While certainly sympathetic to Cox’s alleged “catastrophic injuries as a result of the fall”, the counts against the Sorority Defendants fail under the most basic duty-breach-causation-damages analysis.’
The motion went on to accuse Cox’s parents of making ‘generic negligence allegations’ against the sorority and chapter president in their quest for financial restitution. The family alleges Cox’s injuries will require intensive – and costly – round-the-clock care.
It also names property owner Marcia Ramos, and the Ramos Properties company as defendants, after Cox fell from a second-floor kitchen window onto the driveway below. She has yet to regain consciousness nearly a year later
Scales (pictured) and her school-sanctioned sorority have since questioned the ‘generalized duties’ they were supposedly responsible for, as well as the so-called ‘dangerous’ conditions at the apartment
The school-sanctioned sorority, in turn, questioned the ‘generalized duties’ they were supposedly responsible for, as well as the so-called ‘dangerous’ conditions present at the apartment.
‘Plaintiffs merely allege that all defendants were somehow responsible for the myriad of alleged behavior without any allegation of what actually caused the fall,’ the sorority’s filing said.
‘Sadly, Sarah cannot provide any facts or details about it because she has been in a catatonic state ever since she hit the ground.
‘Moreover, none of the people present at the party have offered any facts about how it happened, not even her close friends,’ the motion to dismiss continued.
‘Despite requests for information made by Sarah’s mother and other efforts to obtain certain facts about Sarah’s fall from the window, nobody was willing to offer any details,’ it pointed out.
‘So[,] the only tool available to the Plaintiffs is the court and its grant of discovery powers.’
The latter assertion came as Cox’s parents continue to demand answers about the incident, which happened while their daughter was at a sorority-related gathering at the apartment where Scales lived.
The incident, as mentioned, remains somewhat shrouded, despite the fact that ‘at some time between 6 and 6:30 pm, Cox fell approximately 20 feet out of a kitchen window onto a driveway,’ the complaint said.
As for how it happened, the sorority said, ‘The plausible suggestion is that there were too many people in the kitchen… As the crowd moved and swayed in the small kitchen, Sarah was squeezed against the window and could not avoid falling’
Potential witnesses, meanwhile, have so far been not helpful to the family, who has struggled to discern how the fall actually happened. In the interim, Cox (pictured) remains in a coma, her career upended by the accident. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for September 11
Of the residence, it states it was ‘publicly known to be an apartment that [Scales] and the Sorority openly used as their Sorority house,’ thus putting Ramos and her company on the hook for future prospective payments, the family said.
Ramos, in response, has laid blame toward the local sorority chapter, their national organization, and Scales as well – along with Cox herself.
‘If the Plaintiffs suffered injuries as alleged in the Plaintiffs’ Complaint, then said injuries, to the extent not caused by the Plaintiffs’ own failure to exercise due care for her safety, may not have been caused in whole or in part as a result of the actions for failures to act’ of the other defendants, Ramos Properties wrote it its own filing to get the claims against them dismissed.
Potential witnesses, meanwhile, have so far been not helpful to the family, who has struggled to discern how the fall actually happened.
In the interim, Cox remains in a coma, her career upended by the accident.
‘She had just come back from her third international medical mission trip helping people all over the world who have limited access to health care,’ a fundraiser for the aspiring doctor noted.
As for how it happened, the sorority offered its own hypothesis in their motion to dismiss the case, saying simply, ‘The plausible suggestion is that there were too many people in the kitchen, people were drinking, [and] some were impaired,
‘[A]s the crowd moved and swayed in the small kitchen, Sarah was squeezed against the window and could not avoid falling out of the window,’ it concluded.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for September 11.
