The family of a Northeastern University student who fell out of a second-floor window while at a party for members of Alpha Epsilon Phi last year has filed a lawsuit against the university chapter and national chapter of the sorority, alleging multiple counts of negligence in the incident.
The lawsuit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court March 12, is brought by Batul Kazim and William Cox, the parents of Sarah Cox. Cox was a third-year student majoring in health science when, on March 31, 2023, she fell out of a second-floor window while attending a sorority-related party hosted by the president of Northeastern’s chapter of Alpha Epsilon Phi at a Mission Hill residence, according to the initial complaint. Cox has remained in a “catatonic state ever since she hit the ground” and currently resides in a pediatric nursing home, court documents read. According to a GoFundMe created by her family, Cox aspired to become a doctor and had recently returned from her third international medical mission trip at the time of the incident.
The lawsuit, which also lists the Mission Hill apartment’s owner and tenant as defendants, seeks to compensate Cox’s family for emotional and financial damages caused by the accident. Cox’s medical bills “far exceed” $200,000 and will continue to climb as she receives further care, according to court documents.
“Sarah Cox’s injuries are catastrophic, and she will require one to one care 24 hours per day and 7 days per week on a permanent basis,” a statement of damages reads. “Sarah Cox and her family have and will continue to suffer emotional distress and financial hardship due to Sarah’s injuries and the level and types of care she will require on a permanent basis.”
Cox’s family alleges that the sorority and other defendants knew or should have known that the combination of alcohol consumption, overcrowding expected at sorority-related events and the low placement of the windows in the apartment posed a safety risk. The lawsuit argues that the sorority, the sorority’s former president and tenant of the apartment Margaret Scales, and the property manager were negligent in allowing overcrowding and intoxication at a sorority party in an apartment with unsecured windows.
Ellen Mannion and William Eveland, the lawyers representing the Northeastern and national chapters of the sorority and Scales, did not immediately answer emails and calls made to addresses and phone numbers listed in court documents. Current president of the sorority Amanda Bukunt and Northeastern’s Panhellenic Council did not respond to requests for comment over email.
The incident occurred at 2 Judge St. in Boston’s Mission Hill, a property owned by Ramos Properties II and the company’s manager Marcia Ramos, according to the lawsuit. Both are listed as defendants in the suit.
The property at 2 Judge St. was “openly used as [the] sorority house” and used by Scales for personal and sorority-related gatherings and events, according to the initial complaint. The day of the incident, Scales hosted a sorority-related party in preparation to attend a sorority formal event later that evening, court documents read.
Cox, who was a member of the sorority, was in the second-floor kitchen with her “sorority sisters and friends” between 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. when she fell out of the window and over 20 feet onto the driveway below, according to the complaint. The lawsuit alleges that there were 30 or more people in the house when Cox fell.
The suit argues that Alpha Epsilon Phi was responsible for ensuring the safety of its members during sorority events and failed to warn Cox and others about the alleged danger of the event.
The lawsuit brings similar allegations against Scales and Ramos, adding that both knew that the “window that [Cox] fell out of was so low that a person could foreseeably fall out of it” and that overcrowding would’ve made this more likely. The plaintiffs also claim Ramos “failed to sufficiently secure window screens installed in such windows that are so low that someone could easily fall out” of them and “failed to employ any safeguards that would prevent a person from falling out of such low windows.”
In subsequent court filings, all defendants denied the allegations against them. Ramos and Ramos Properties II filed crossclaims, or claims against co-defendants, saying that if fault is found, it lies with Scales or Alpha Epsilon Phi.
The national and university branches of Alpha Epsilon Phi and Scales filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit July 1, court documents show. The motion says the complaint lacks evidence that the defendants’ negligence caused Cox to fall from the window.
“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,” Eveland wrote in a memo to support the case dismissal.
The memo also says the plaintiffs never allege or provide evidence that the sorority supplied alcohol to party attendees that night, whether there was alcohol at the party, that Cox drank alcohol, whether any sorority members caused Cox to fall out of the window or why the sorority would be responsible for the window’s maintenance.
“Plaintiffs merely allege that all defendants were somehow responsible for the myriad of alleged behavior without any allegation of what actually caused the fall,” Eveland wrote, adding that a police investigation of the incident did not produce criminal charges.
In an objection to dismissal, the lawyer for Cox’s family, James Kelly, wrote that they cannot provide information about how Cox fell out of the window because she is unable to tell them. The document also says that “none of the people present at the party have offered any facts about how it happened, not even [Cox’s] closest friends,” despite her parent’s attempts to get details of that night.
“Granted, facts such as, did she trip, lose her balance, slip on something on the floor, was she pushed, did she sit on the windowpane, and/or was she inebriated are absent,” the motion reads. “The plausible suggestion is that there were too many people in the kitchen, people were drinking, some were impaired, and as the crowd moved and swayed in the small kitchen, Sarah was squeezed against the window and could not avoid falling out of the window.”
The response also says that the police investigation was focused on criminal activity, not evidence of negligence, and is therefore irrelevant.
“The only way to fill in the blanks is to use subpoena power and to issue discovery requests to those people that have answers that everyone is after,” the filing reads, adding that Alpha Epsilon Phi will have to disclose its safety protocols if the lawsuit ever reaches the discovery phase.
“Other sororities at Northeastern have safety protocols … the Sorority Defendants will have to share their protocols in discovery,” Kelly wrote. “Or in the alternative, they will have to admit that they do not implement any such safety protocols, when it appears to be the standard among similar sororities to do so. We will not know the extent of their failures until we engage in discovery.
