The parents of a girl who fell into a coma after falling from a sorority window have filed a lawsuit against the president of the Greek society.
Filed last March, the lawsuit involves Sarah Cox, who was a junior at Northeastern University when she fell 20 feet during a party before her prom.
The girl has yet to regain consciousness since then, her parents Batul Kazim and William Cox said in a filing accusing their daughter’s sorority, Alpha Epsilon Phi, of failing to take necessary precautions to protect members.
The complaint also names then-chapter president Margaret “Maggie” Scales, owner Marcia Ramos and Ramos Properties as defendants.
The inclusion of Ramos and her real estate business came about because she knew that 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 lawsuit involves Sarah Cox (pictured), who was a junior at Northeastern University when she plummeted 20 feet during a pre-graduation party.
The complaint, in turn, names then-chapter president Margaret “Maggie” Scales (seen here) as one of the parties responsible for the girl’s injuries, accusing her of failing to take necessary precautions to protect members.
“Sarah Cox’s injuries are catastrophic and she will require 24/7 personal care on an ongoing basis,” a section of the filing reads.
‘Sarah Cox will need a variety of medical devices and equipment to survive.’
The statement goes on to note how the family’s medical bills “already well exceed $200,000.”
“The costs of your care will continue to increase for the rest of your life,” he continues.
The sorority responded by filing a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, which it did in July, alleging that the incident that occurred during a party on March 31, 2023, at around 6 p.m., was Cox’s fault.
“When you look at the six counts of negligence against the sorority defendants in the 170-paragraph complaint, the plaintiffs’ claim is: ‘Sarah Cox fell from a window onto the driveway below,'” the motion said.
‘While certainly sympathetic to Cox’s alleged ‘catastrophic injuries resulting from the fall,’ the charges against the Brotherhood defendants fail under the more basic breach of duty-causation-damages analysis.’
The motion went on to accuse Cox’s parents of making “allegations of generic negligence” against the sorority and the chapter president in their pursuit of financial restitution. The family alleges that Cox’s injuries will require intensive and expensive care around the clock.
It also names the property’s owner, Marcia Ramos, and Ramos Properties as defendants after Cox fell from a second-floor kitchen window onto the driveway below. Nearly a year later, she has yet to regain consciousness.
Scales (pictured) and her school-approved sorority have since questioned the “widespread duties” they were allegedly responsible for, as well as so-called “dangerous” conditions in the apartment.
The school-sanctioned sorority, in turn, questioned the “widespread duties” they were supposedly responsible for, as well as the so-called “dangerous” conditions present in the apartment.
“Plaintiffs simply allege that all defendants were somehow responsible for the large number of alleged behaviors without any allegation of what actually caused the downfall,” the sorority’s filing says.
‘Unfortunately, Sarah cannot provide any data or details regarding this because she has been in a catatonic state since she fell to the ground.
“Furthermore, none of the people present at the party have offered any facts about how it occurred, not even their close friends,” the motion to dismiss continued.
“Despite requests for information from Sarah’s mother and other efforts to obtain certain details about Sarah’s fall from the window, no one was willing to provide any details,” he said.
‘Therefore, the only tool available to plaintiffs is the court and its grant of discovery powers.’
The latest claim came as Cox’s parents continue to demand answers about the incident, which occurred while their daughter was at a sorority-related meeting at the apartment where Scales lived.
The incident, as mentioned, remains somewhat covered up, despite the fact that “sometime between 6 and 6:30 p.m., Cox fell approximately 20 feet from a kitchen window onto a driveway,” the complaint says.
As to how it happened, the brotherhood 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 pinned against the window and was unable to avoid falling.’
Meanwhile, potential witnesses have been of no help to the family, who have struggled to discern how the fall actually occurred. Meanwhile, Cox (pictured) remains in a coma, his career disrupted by the accident. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for September 11.
Regarding the residence, it is alleged that “it was publicly known as an apartment that (Scales) and the Brotherhood openly used as their Brotherhood home,” which put Ramos and his company on the hook for making potential future payments, the family said.
Ramos, in response, has blamed the brotherhood’s local chapter, its national organization and also Scales, along with Cox herself.
“If Plaintiffs did suffer injuries as alleged in Plaintiffs’ Complaint, then such injuries, to the extent they were not caused by Plaintiffs’ own failure to exercise due care for their safety, may not have been caused in whole or in part as a result of the other Defendants’ inactions,” Ramos Properties wrote in its own filing seeking to dismiss the claims against it.
Meanwhile, potential witnesses have so far been of no help to the family, who have struggled to discern how the fall actually occurred.
Meanwhile, Cox remains in a coma, his career disrupted by the accident.
“She had just returned from her third international medical mission trip to help people around 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 its 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.”
“As the crowd moved and swayed in the small kitchen, Sarah was pinned against the window and was unable to avoid falling out,” he concluded.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for September 11.
