No pocket money for life!!

[Gob]

Citing cases dating back as far as 1928, a judge has ruled that a young girl accused of running down an elderly woman while racing a bicycle with training wheels on a Manhattan sidewalk two years ago can be sued for negligence.

The ruling by the judge, Justice Paul Wooten of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, did not find that the girl was liable, but merely permitted a lawsuit brought against her, another boy and their parents to move forward.

The suit that Justice Wooten allowed to proceed claims that in April 2009, Juliet Breitman and Jacob Kohn, who were both 4, were racing their bicycles, under the supervision of their mothers, Dana Breitman and Rachel Kohn, on the sidewalk of a building on East 52nd Street. At some point in the race, they struck an 87-year-old woman named Claire Menagh, who was walking in front of the building and, according to the complaint, was “seriously and severely injured,” suffering a hip fracture that required surgery. She died three months later of unrelated causes.


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/29/nyreg ... terstitial

[The Hen]

As it isn't the old woman who is suing the child, I take it it is the old woman's family who are giving this issue oxygen?

[loCAtek]

What can you sue a 4-year-old for? Their security blankie?

[Lord Jim]

I hate to sound like an ambulance chasing shyster, but I have to say I don't think a lawsuit of some sort is completely ridiculous in this case....

Afterall, this is an 87 year old woman who wound up with a broken hip....

But suing the four year olds of course is ridiculous....

I have to wonder why the parent isn't being sued....

One possibility that occurs to me is that the judge may have made the decision to allow the kid to be sued because he doesn't think much of the case, (perhaps in light of the fact that the plaintiff isn't the injured party, but instead her heirs, who he may feel don't deserve to profit from this.) and so he made this ruling of liability in order to protect the parent from having the liability....

ETA:

Okay, I need to clean my reading glasses...

The parents are being sued....

Never mind.

[Gob]

New York child sued for woman's death after bike crash

Stock image of children on bicycles The judge ruled the four-year-old girl was old enough to be held negligent under law

A New York child can be sued for crashing a bicycle into an elderly pedestrian and causing injuries that led to her death, a judge has ruled.

Juliet Breitman and another child were four years old when they raced their small bicycles on a Manhattan street and ran into Claire Menagh, 87.

Juliet's lawyer had argued Juliet was too young to be held negligent.

The judge disagreed, ruling Juliet's lawyer had presented no evidence she lacked intelligence or maturity.

According to court filings, in April 2009, Juliet Breitman and Jacob Kohn were accompanied by their mothers, Dana Breitman and Rachel Kohn, as they raced their bicycles along the pavement near the East River in New York's Manhattan borough.


The children struck Ms Menagh, knocking her to the ground. She underwent surgery for a fractured hip and died three months later.

Ms Menagh - and later her son, acting as executor of her estate - sued the children, arguing they were "negligent in their operation and control of their bicycles". The estate also sued Dana Breitman and Rachel Kohn, saying they had consented to the race.

Juliet's lawyer sought to have the case dismissed, filing with the court a copy of Juliet's birth certificate showing she was four years and nine months old at the time of the accident.

Citing several cases involving young children who had been in accidents, New York Supreme Court Judge Paul Wooten ruled that Juliet, now six years old, could be sued.

While he noted that the law presumes children under age four are incapable of negligence, "for infants above the age of four, there is no bright line rule", he wrote in the decision.

He also wrote that the Juliet's lawyer had presented no evidence as to the child's lack of intelligence or maturity, nor that "a child of similar age and capacity" would not have understood the danger of riding a bicycle into an old woman.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11657376

You Americans are insane aren't you? ;D

[dales]

.....and Gob finally GETS IT!

[loCAtek]

Yup, this would make more sense if we'd read a Brit did the suing in the Daily Mail.


Although suing children in New York, seems to be the state sport;

Tree Fort under fire

[BoSoxGal]

It's just a matter of spreading the liability to include the actor whose actions were negligent, as well as the parent whose supervision of the actor's actions was negligent.

The lady died, as often happens to elderly folks who get broken hips. She might have lived a number of years longer, as she was clearly ambulatory under her own power prior to being struck by the child on the bike.

A pedestrian of any age should be safe from being mowed down by kids on bikes while walking on a public sidewalk. I can't say I have any problem with the litigation in this instance.

But then, I am a lawyer.

[Miles]

Perhaps justice will prevail if one of the parents, in the future, were to suffer the same injury at the hands/wheels of someone elses children.

[Big RR]

But BSG

It's just a matter of spreading the liability to include the actor whose actions were neglient

, can a 4 year old really be negligient? Under what standard? Would even a reasonable 4 year old (whatever that suggests) have any comprehension or mental process which would allow them to comprehend what risk a bicycle race on a public street or sodewalk was? I sincerely doubt it. (and FWIW, even if she were, what possible compensation could a 4 year old pay--I don't think the parents woul;d be responsible for the tort of a minor child?

Now the parents who set up that same race clearly should have known better...

[Gob]

That'll teach them!!!