January 29, 2026
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Justin King, 18, of Gilbertsville, Montgomery County, died in September 2019 after a night of heavy drinking during a rush event at the Alpha Sigma Tau sorority house at Bloomsburg University. Above, the former sorority house is shown in 2018.
The estate of a Bloomsburg University student who fell to his death from a cliff after a night of heavy drinking at a fraternity rush event in 2019 has been awarded $7.8 million by a Luzerne County jury.
Philadelphia-based law firm Kline & Specter represented the estate of Justin King, an 18-year-old Gilbertsville man who was a freshman when he attended the rush event at the Alpha Sigma Tau sorority house.
King, a graduate of Boyertown Area Senior High School, had been at Bloomsburg for less than a month when he was invited to the Sept. 13 party. Attorneys said King consumed "copious amounts of alcohol" that night and wandered far off campus. He fell over a rocky ledge and down a 75-foot rocky embankment that leads to the Bloomsberg Walking Trail. The trail is behind a group of residences.
Early the next morning, a person walking along the trail found King's body. An autopsy determined King's death was accidental. The toxicology report found he had a blood alcohol level of .22, nearly three times the legal limit.
King's estate reached confidential settlements in recent years with the Kappa Sigma fraternity and dozens of individual defendants. The Alpha Sigma Tau national sorority was the only defendant the estate pursued at trial. The lawsuit, filed in 2021, did not name Bloomsburg University as a defendant.
The 10-day trial, held before Luzerne County Common Pleas Court Judge Lesa S. Gelb, centered on whether the sorority should be held liable for negligence and for violating the state's anti-hazing statute. The law was created in response to the 2017 hazing death of Penn State University student Timothy Piazza, who suffered serious injuries during a bid night event at the Beta Theta Pi fraternity and was left overnight without medical care.
After five days of deliberations, the jury allocated responsibility for King's death to various parties. The Alpha Sigma Tau sorority was assigned 35% responsibility, requiring the national organization to pay $2.73 million to King's estate. With delay of damages, King's estate expects to collect $3.5 million from the sorority.
The jury allocated 35% responsibility to the Kappa Sigma fraternity, 24% responsibility to King and 1% to each of six fraternity members.
The sorority also pursued cross-claims against several of its members at the start of the trial, but later dropped those claims.
"The jury's award makes clear that national Greek organizations cannot turn a blind eye to rampant drinking and policy violations on college campuses," Kline & Specter's legal team said in a statement Thursday.
The lawsuit presented evidence suggesting the Alpha Sigma Tau sorority had ignored policy violations, hazing and underage drinking for years before King's death.
"The jury understood where the culture at Bloomsburg came from, and they understood this case was about corporate responsibility," Kline & Specter's attorneys said.
The Alpha Sigma Tau sorority did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
