...but there is a court that is even crazier than any Canadian Human Rights tribunal.
A judge in New York has ruled that a six year old girl can be sued. Two years ago little Juliet Breitman was riding her training bike with her little buddy when there was an accident and the kids crashed into 87 year old Claire Menagh who broke her hip. She died three months later.
Sad. But suing a six year old? Not only is Menagh's family suing a six year old (who has no assets) but they are suing the parents.
According to Reuters:
"For infants above the age of 4, there is no bright-line rule," Wooten wrote, adding that the girl had been three months shy of turning 5.
Wooten also disagreed with the lawyer's assertion that Juliet Breitman should not be held responsible because her mother was supervising the children at the time.
"A parent's presence alone does not give a reasonable child carte blanche to engage in risky behavior such as running across a street," Wooten wrote. He added that "the term 'supervising' is too vague to hold meaning here."
Wooten concluded by writing that there was no indication or evidence that "another child of similar age and capacity under the circumstances could not have reasonably appreciated the danger of riding a bicycle into an elderly woman."
I am shocked. We are not talking about young offenders who knowingly commit crimes. We are talking about a four year old learning to ride a bike and accidently hitting a pedestrian.
This is beyond the pale. I don't know what to say.
Okay, I do know what to say. I am glad that Canada is not as litigous as the US.
First thing we do is kill all the lawyers.
ReplyDeleteI don't like the lawsuit, but it sounds as if the supervision was seriously lacking. If it were my aged mum who was offed by the toddlers (albiet unwittingly), I would not be pleased.
ReplyDeleteBased on the facts presented, I would have to disagree.
ReplyDeleteIf your dog ran out in the road in front of a car and the car ran off the road as a result of trying to avoid the dog, would the insurance company not sue the dog owner?
Same thing here. Only with more dire consequences.
At 87 years old, a hip fracture is generally a death sentance - a long, slow, agonizing death sentance. Was it her fault that she was run down by the 6 year-old and her friend? No.
Perhaps if her parents kept her in their own driveway to practice her bike skills, the old woman would still be alive and well.
The liability, sadly falls to the parents of the little girl. As it must.
This is touchy. Think about it. We live in a country where every kind plays street hockey and the ones who don't are generally considered severely disadvantaged.
ReplyDeleteAnd what do you get from a six year old? What assets are you going after.
And what about the old woman's culpability. As an adult she is responsible for being aware of her surroundings. Was she payng attention to what was going on around her?
Sometimes an accident is just that. Consider the butterfly effect. Holding a six year old culpable for something they did when they were four is simply dumbfounding.
The parents - tell me are you one? Have you been able to control every single momemt of your four year old's time? Not a glance away?
It is sad that this ended the way it did. It's sad that a six year old is being sued.
What does the family hope to gain. We aren't talking about criminal charges - those have not been brought. Civil action here. This is a money grab. Plain and simple.
Sad.