Montgomery County family awarded $7.8M verdict in Bloomsburg U hazing death

A Luzerne County jury on Wednesday awarded a $7.8 million verdict to the family of Justin King, a Montgomery County resident and Bloomsburg University student who died in a 2019 fall after a night of drinking at a fraternity rush party.

The fraternity, Kappa Sigma, and dozens of individual defendants previously reached confidential settlements with King’s mother, Carol King, who brought the complaint in 2021, said the family’s lawyers Helen Lawless, Benjamin Present, and Mark Fuchs of the Kline & Specter law firm.

But the sorority, Alpha Sigma Tau, whose members’ house was used for the event, chose to go to court, and now it faces paying $3.5 million including delay damages, the lawyers said.

» READ MORE: Bloomsburg U. fraternity, sorority sued in 2019 death of student from Montgomery County

“I’m pretty happy about the verdict from the standpoint of its holding the national organization responsible for the actions of what happened,” said Carol King, of Gilbertsville in Montgomery County. “There is no bringing him back and I will always have a hole in my heart for him. But this gets me closer to doing what I wanted to do, which is find some sort of justice for Justin.”

The sorority in a statement said it was disappointed that it was held partially liable for King’s death.

“We fundamentally disagree with this outcome and believe it both wrongly holds innocent parties responsible for circumstances beyond their control and establishes a deeply concerning precedent that violates settled Pennsylvania law,” said Ellen Carmichael, whose firm represents the sorority.

The sorority is considering its legal options, she said.

King filed the lawsuit against the fraternity, sorority and 36 of their members, alleging that they plied her son, then an 18-year-old freshman at Bloomsburg — now part of Commonwealth University — with liquor as part of an initiation process.

» READ MORE: Police investigating death of Bloomsburg student who died in September

He was given liquor including a mixture with vodka known as “jungle juice” or “blackout water,” participated in a “crate race” — a game involving large amounts of alcohol consumption over little time — and later fell down a 75-foot embankment, where he was found the next morning, according to the wrongful-death lawsuit. King had a .22 blood alcohol content, which is nearly three times the legal limit, his lawyers said.

Bloomsburg was not sued.

“They took action in this case unlike the national sorority office,” said Lawless, one of King’s lawyers.

Bloomsburg permanently revoked the fraternity’s recognition and the chapter was later expelled from the campus. The sorority was suspended for four years.

Police had not filed charges in the case, and Columbia County Coroner Jeremy Reese had ruled King’s death accidental.

The verdict assigned 35% of the fault for the death to the sorority, 35% to the fraternity, 24% to King and 1% each to six fraternity members, King’s lawyers said.

That means the sorority would be responsible for $2.73 million, but the delayed damages raises that to more than $3.5 million, King’s lawyers said.

“The jury’s award makes clear that national Greek organizations cannot turn a blind eye to rampant drinking and policy violations on college campuses,” King’s lawyers said. “It speaks volumes that the six individual fraternity members each received only 1 percent of the causal fault. The jury understood where the culture at Bloomsburg came from, and they understood this case was about corporate responsibility.”

Carol King said she understood the jury’s decision to assign some of the fault to her son.

“He was drinking,” she said.

King had been at Bloomsburg only three weeks before attending the Sept. 13, 2019, party. He had been recruited to join the fraternity through a flier distributed in freshman dorms.

The lawsuit contended that the defendants violated the anti-hazing law enacted after the 2017 death of Tim Piazza, a Pennsylvania State University student who died after attending a booze-fueled fraternity party where he fell down stairs.

The sorority, according to King’s lawyers, was found liable for negligence as well as for violating the Anti-Hazing Statute.

Since her son’s death, Carol King, a retired corporate human resources director, said she has been speaking out about hazing to raise awareness and pursuing the legal action in her son’s case.

“It was never about the money,” she said. “It was about them taking responsibility,”