Heartbroken parents of student left in coma after fall from sorority house launch lawsuit against Greek society’s president

The parents of a girl who fell into a coma after falling from a student house window have filed a lawsuit against the president of the Greek association.

The lawsuit, filed last March, targets Sarah Cox, a sophomore at Northeastern University who fell 20 feet to her death during a prom party.

She has not regained consciousness since then, parents Batul Kazim and William Cox wrote in a document accusing their daughter’s sorority, Alpha Epsilon Phi, of failing to take necessary precautions to protect its members.

The complaint names then-chapter president Margaret “Maggie” Scales, property owner Marcia Ramos and the company Ramos Properties as defendants.

Ramos and her real estate firm were listed because she knew that the apartment building at 2 Judge Street in Roxbury, Massachusetts, was used by Scales as a student housing unit.

“Sarah Cox’s injuries are serious and she will require continuous 24/7 individual care,” the filing states.

‘Sarah Cox needs all kinds of medical supplies and equipment to survive.’

The statement goes on to note that the family’s medical bills “already exceed $200,000.”

‘[T]The costs of her care will continue to mount for the rest of her life,’ it continues,

The student association responded by filing a motion in July to dismiss the lawsuit. According to the student association, the incident that occurred during a party on March 31, 2023 at around 6 p.m. was Cox’s fault.

“When you slice through the six counts of negligence against the fraternity defendants in the 170-paragraph complaint, the plaintiffs’ claim reads, ‘Sarah Cox fell from a window into the driveway below,'” the motion reads, sharply.

“While we certainly understand Cox’s alleged ‘catastrophic injuries resulting from the fall,’ the charges against the fraternity defendants fail under the most basic analysis of breach of duty-causation-damages.”

The motion went on to accuse Cox’s parents of making “generic allegations of negligence” against the sorority and chapter president in their pursuit of financial compensation. The family alleges that Cox’s injuries require intensive — and costly — around-the-clock care.

The student association recognized by the school, in turn, questioned the “general tasks” for which they were supposedly responsible, as well as the so-called “dangerous” conditions in the apartment.

“Plaintiffs merely allege that all defendants were somehow responsible for the many alleged acts, without any allegation as to what actually caused the fall,” the student association’s petition filing said.

Unfortunately, Sarah cannot provide any facts or details about this as she has been in a catatonic state since the fall.

“Furthermore, none of those present at the party provided any facts about how it happened, not even her closest friends,” the motion to dismiss said.

“Despite requests from Sarah’s mother for information and other attempts to obtain certain facts about Sarah’s fall from the window, no one would provide details,” it noted.

So[,] The only tool available to plaintiffs is the court and its power to conduct discovery.’

This latest claim came after Cox’s parents continued to demand answers about the incident, which occurred while their daughter was attending a fraternity meeting at the apartment where Scales lived.

The incident, as noted, remains somewhat under wraps, despite the fact that “sometime between 6:00 and 6:30 p.m., Cox fell approximately 20 feet from a kitchen window into a driveway,” the complaint states.

It is said about the house that it was ‘publicly known that it was an apartment that [Scales] and openly used the Sorority as their Sorority home,” the family said, making Ramos and her company responsible for future payments.

Ramos responded by blaming the local student association, their national organization, and also Scales—and Cox himself.

‘If plaintiffs suffered injuries as alleged in plaintiffs’ complaint, then to the extent that such injuries were not caused by plaintiffs’ own failure to exercise due care for their safety, they may not have been caused in whole or in part by the negligent acts of the other defendants. Ramos Properties itself has filed a motion to dismiss the claims against it.

Potential witnesses have not been able to tell the family much so far, and they are struggling to figure out how the fall could have actually happened.

Meanwhile, Cox is still in a coma, her career turned upside down by the accident.

“She had just returned from her third international medical mission trip, helping people around the world who had limited access to health care,” according to a fundraiser for the aspiring doctor.

As for how it happened, the student association offered its own hypothesis in its motion to dismiss the case, simply stating, “The plausible suggestion is that there were too many people in the kitchen, that people were drinking, [and] some were weakened,

‘[A]As the crowd in the small kitchen moved and staggered, Sarah was pressed against the window and was unable to prevent herself from falling out of the window,’ it concluded.

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for September 11.