Woman Injured by Teen’s Fatal Fall Files Suit

(CN) — The teenager who fell to her death from the roof of a college dormitory last year broke the back of a pedestrian she landed on, that woman claims in court.

Rebecca Kim was just 18 on Jan. 15, 2015, when she fell to her death while visiting Art Institute of Philadelphia students living in campus housing at 1530 Chestnut St.

A complaint filed last week in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas says Kim landed on Erica Goodwin, knocking the woman out and leaving her with a series of permanent injuries.

Filing suit with her husband, Goodwin says it is unclear whether Kim fell or jumped.

The complaint says Kim told her friends in the dorm that she had wanted to take photographs, but the teen "posted on Facebook six hours prior to her fall, 'It was intentional.'"

Kim clambered out onto the roof from her friends' eighth-floor apartment, which featured double windows that the school and its building managers described as "astoundingly large" and "awe inspiring."

Saying the school and its building managers "should have known that unrestricted access to the roof and roof edges by the students would create a danger to others," Goodwin notes that students were prone to opening the dorm's windows to "throw objects from the windows or partake in other dangerous and unsafe behaviors."

Despite this knowledge, only some of the building's windows were bolted shut, according to the April 29 complaint.

Goodwin says she is unable to work after Kim's fall, having undergone spinal-fusion surgery to treat seven broken vertebrae. Kim also broke five ribs and her scapula, plus she has a damaged lung now and loose teeth.

The Lansdowne woman and her husband seek damages from Kim's estate and the students who let Kim out on their roof. In addition to the Art Institute, the complaint also takes aim its parent company, Education Management Corp. Property owners or managers named as defendants include CP Development 1530, 1530 Chestnut Street Associates, Cross Properties Realty and Latus Partners.

Goodwin and her husband are represented by Yvonne Barnes Montgomery of the Tucker Law Group.

The Art Institute did not respond to a request for comment.

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