Sarah Cox, a junior at Northeastern University in Boston and member of the Phi Omega chapter of the Alpha Epsilon Phi sorority, fell out of a second-story window during a party in March 2023 and received "catastrophic" injuries as a result.
Now, Cox's family is suing the property manager of the rental house from which she fell, her sorority, the sorority's student president and the sorority's Northeastern chapter.
Between 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. on March 31, 2023, while members of the sorority gathered at the rental home on Judge Street in Boston's Mission Hill neighborhood ahead of their formal later that evening, Cox fell from a kitchen window.
"The kitchen was crowded with party guests and Sarah Cox fell out of a window onto the driveway below, a distance of about 20 feet," the lawsuit filed in Suffolk County states. She suffered "catastrophic injuries" as a result of the fall and was in a coma for months, according to her family's GoFundMe page.
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In December 2023, Cox's family posted their latest update to the page, saying Cox "is the same sweet and cherished presence in our lives that she always has been."
"We are in the Pediatric Rehab now. This place offers intensive and specialized therapies that will inshallah (God be willing) expedite Sarah’s recovery. Our days and night merge into a blur as we take care of our precious daughter," they wrote in a description for the page.
Their complaint alleges that some 30 people were in the house at the time of the party and Cox's fall. Plaintiffs are accusing the property manager, Marcia Ramos and Ramos Properties, of negligence and failure to warn tenants that the windows were low enough for someone to easily fall out of them.
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The lawsuit alleges that Ramos was responsible for ensuring the property was safe and "failed to keep tenants from granting access to more people than apartments in the Property could safely accommodate at one time." The lawsuit further alleges that Ramos should have foreseen unsafe crowding and alcohol consumption in the building being used by college students.
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"Ms. Ramos had a duty to manage the property to keep it safe for those lawfully within the apartments in it by keeping window screens securely installed in windows that are so low that a person could easily fall out of such windows," the lawsuit states.
The plaintiffs further accused the Phi Omega chapter of the Alpha Epsilon Phi (POAEP) sorority at Northeastern and its student president at the time, Maggie Scales, of negligence and failure to warn.
"POAEP had a duty to keep those lawfully within the apartment, when used for sorority related activities, from any dangerous uses and conditions caused by those members of the sorority," the complaint alleges. "POAEP failed to sufficiently warn its members who host sorority related events in their apartments of the dangers and the foreseeable likelihood of injuries to those members in attendance at such events when those in attendance including its members are impaired by drinking alcohol and the hosts allow more people in the apartment than can safely accommodate at one time."
All defendants named in the lawsuit have filed motions to dismiss. The sorority defendants argue that the complaint "fails to state facts sufficient to support any negligence theory against the sorority defendants."
Defendants further argue in another filing that the plaintiffs' complaint does not say exactly how Cox fell out the window or why.
"When you cut through the six counts of negligence against the sorority defendants in the 170-paragraph complaint, plaintiffs' claim is: ‘Sarah Cox fell out of a window onto the driveway below.’ 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," their motion to dismiss states.
The sorority defendants also note that the Coxes' complaint does not allege that Sarah Cox consumed alcohol, that she was served or coerced into drinking alcohol, or that alcohol was "even present that night."
"Plaintiffs fail to show how, why, or what caused Cox to fall, or how any defendant … is legally responsible for it. Rather, plaintiffs just assume all defendants must be somehow liable," the defendants' filing states, going on to criticize the plaintiffs' "scattershot pleading style."
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Cox's family says she will require 24-hour care, seven days a week "on a permanent basis" because her "injuries are catastrophic."
The parents have also experienced emotional distress, and Cox's medical bills have "far exceeded $200,000," and costs for her care "will continue to mount for the rest of her life."
Both the plaintiffs' and defendants' attorneys declined comment at this time.
A hearing in the case is scheduled for Wednesday in Suffolk County Superior Court.
