4 years olds can be sued?

[dakotablue]

OK this I don't quite get and I might be missing some of the story, but really?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/29/ny...o_interstitial

Basically an almost 5 year old ran into an old women while riding her bike with training wheels. A judge just ruled she can be sued for neglect.

What do you all think about this. I understand the women was hurt, but suing for negligence also points to no intent on the child's part.

Is your almost 5 year old capable of understanding the danger of riding a bike fast on a sidewalk? (it was in the city)

Mods...is there a better place for this?

[AllisonR]

I find it as looney as you did. At first I thought, OK, it says sue a 4yo, but they are really wanting damages paid by the child's parents. But no, as I read it, the judge says a just turned 4yo could not be purposely negligent, but because she was 3 months shy of being 5yo, so she should have known not to bike so fast and into the woman. But so much is NOT explained. Did she and the other 4 yo boy see the woman, and intentionally run her down? Or were they distracted and not see her? Did the woman just appear, or was she there all along? Did the woman or the children just assume the other would move out of the way?

OK, my 3 yo (nearly 4) bikes blazingly fast down the sidewalk, and she will move to avoid people, dogs, strollers... but I could also see a situation where she might get so distracted talking with me or a friend, or seeing something exciting, that she accidentally crashes into someone. Or if she wasn't sure whether she should move over or the other person should. Would also depend on if she could see the person walking down the street, or if they had just appeared and headed across the sidewalk... none of that is explained in the original article.

[shanniesue2]

that makes no sense at all... what on earth would you get out of suing a 4 year old... I get that the parents would pay damages.... so why not just sue the mom for not providing close enough supervision? Or maybe the mom was supervising closely and warning the little girl that she was about to run into the older lady. idk... it's kind of general... but I can imagine a number of situations where a little kid would be distracted enough to run into something or someone... or maybe (since she did have training wheels on her bike) she just starting going faster than she was really able to control?

I mean I'm sure that it's not like she ran into the lady on purpose. The whole thing just seems... a little.... extreme

[Lisa1970]

I am suspecting that this is a case of the parents not keeping proper control of their own children. I think that the hit to the lady must have been pretty bad for those kind of injuries. It is really the parents being sued and I agree that the parents should be sued. I have seen way way too many parents who find it acceptable to let their children be destructive and out of control. Parents SHOULD be held accountable for their children's behaviors.

[Lisa1970]

Also, I want to add, I was at the store with my mother who walks with a cane. She got knocked over by some horrid kids who were running fast up and down the aisles. We asked them to stop, please watch out, but they would not stop. No parents were in sight. And then they knocked my mom over. They really creamed her. I mean, they were running at full speed and their parents did not care. My mom ended up in the hospital for months. I think it would have been great if she had sued the parents of those kids. Those kids and the parents of those kids never apologized, not once.

[moondiapers]

Well the woman DIED. Apparently, as the law is written, the parent's can't be sued....so the only option left is to sue the parents (if one thinks they MUST sue). This law needs to be changed!!! The parent was allowing the illegal behavior (bike riding on sidewalk) so the parent should be able to be sued.

[Irishmommy]

Originally Posted by moondiapers

Well the woman DIED. Apparently, as the law is written, the parent's can't be sued....so the only option left is to sue the parents (if one thinks they MUST sue). This law needs to be changed!!! The parent was allowing the illegal behavior (bike riding on sidewalk) so the parent should be able to be sued.

The article specifically says she did NOT die because of this, but of unrelated causes.

[Kuba'sMama]

I'm sure there is more to this case than mentioned. I think the point is that children (or adults for that matter) should not be riding their bicycles on busy street sidewalks. Two children on a sidewalk racing is a disaster waiting to happen and in fact a disaster DID happen. It's a very serious matter, and I would be mad enough to sue if it was my 80 grandmother who was ran over. I think this is a punishment for the parents, not the children. The children won't be hassled in court, they won't be paying any damages.

This accident shouldn't have happened and should've been prevented by the mothers.
And I do have an almost 5 year old girl and she does ride a bike with training wheels on our very slow suburban sidewalks. If there is so much a fellow pedestrian IN SIGHT, I make her slow down to a crawl or stop altogether. A children on a small bike might be a cute and harmless sight, but I'm sure this poor lady did not feel that way as she was slammed into.

[TCMoulton]

In many states the parents cannot be held liable for the actions of their children and so the child must be sued. (can you tell that I enjoy watching The People's Court on occasion? I would guess that most people who do sue hope that the parent's pay the judgement if their child is found guilty but a verdict against a minor remains valid until the child turns 18.

[lilyka]

The only logic I can see is that this will go into their record and if there becomes a pattern of negligence and recklessness on their part this will be another piece of the puzzle. And since they cannot sue the parents (which they should) this is the only way to send a serious message to them and record their negligence.

And I think a 5 year old is old enough to know you don't tide your bike out of control on a side walk. If a child is not old enough to know that they are not old enough to be riding a bike.

[lotusdebi]

The idea of suing a 4 year old is absurd. What a ridiculous country I live in, for such a thing to be possible. What a poor justice system.
The article didn't have enough information for me to otherwise determine the guilt or innocence of anyone present.

[Norasmomma]

What I get out of it is that if she were under 4 she would have lacked the self-control in the eyes of the law, BUT since she was almost 5 she should know to not ride too fast and run into an elderly lady. Hmmmmm...so if you are 4 you lack the judgment, but if you are a couple months shy of 5 by golly you better have some self control.

Gimme a friggin break

[eepster]

Originally Posted by moondiapers

The parent was allowing the illegal behavior (bike riding on sidewalk) so the parent should be able to be sued.

It is legal for children under 12 to ride bicycles on side walks in NYC.

[Britishmum]

Wow, I am amazed that anyone thinks it is reasonable to sue a kid for an accident on her bike with training wheels, or even her parents. But then I don't come from a litigation-crazy country, so it makes no sense to me at all.

When are kids allowed to make mistakes and be kids? Heck, as a just-5 yo I apparently cannoned around a corner on a scooter and knocked a visiting minister off his feet at my aunt's house. My parents were mortified, but that was mainly because he was a minister, not because as a 5 yo I should have known better than to ride my scooter on a pathway. Thank goodness we didn't live in the USA, or else I guess we could have ended up in court.

I could see my 5 yo accidentally running into someone on his bike or scooter, if he were distracted or misjudged a distance or speed. I don't think he's unusual, he's just a kid. That's what kids do - or at least, that's what normal kids in my world do. Not often, but it happens. It's called an accident.

The world is crazy....whatever happened to the notion of accidents happening, and people apologizing, taking flowers, sending a Get Well card, and seeing it for what it is - an accident?

Poor family. And no matter how much any of us might think it wouldn't happen to us as we are 'responsible' parents, it could easily happen to anyone. Some kids might be more likely to get into a scrape than others, but you cannot micromanage a child for its entire childhood, (unless you want to do extreme emotional and psychological harm), and any child can have an accident, in the blink of an eye. I hope that the judges see sense and dismiss this case.

Poor little girl.

[Stephenie]

The article says that the mothers ARE named in the suit, "Her estate sued the children and their mothers, claiming they had acted negligently during the accident."

What on Earth is the point in naming the kids? I see it as malicious on the part of those filing. Sometimes, bad things happen. We don't have to sue over every single bad event that happens. Unless the kids TRIED to hit the woman, I see this as an accident, not negligence or anything else.

[JBaxter]

I didnt read the posted article but I did read it on another board... The lady was 87 and when she fell she broke her hip. ( really any hard tumble at 87 can break a hip) She died of complications from the surgery ( or so I read). Up to age 12 a bike can be ridden on the side walk in NYC so the child was allowed to be riding there.

I think its absolutely crazy to sue a 4 yr old.

[VisionaryMom]

Well, since this was 3 years ago, I can write about it now. DS was riding his Power Wheels with my husband (so not on my watch ), and he ran into our neighbor. She's in her late 60s. They were in a church parking lot across the street. DS was going in a straight line, and she stopped to catch her breath. He didn't stop (not clear on whether there was time), but he hit her. She fell off her bike and braced her fall by putting her hand out.

Two weeks later, she came by to tell us her wrist was broken. She'd walked her dog the next day, and it was a huge, not-well-trained dog. When the dog pulled, her wrist was damaged more. She never said so directly, but she was really fishing for us to offer to pay her medical bills. We didn't offer because as far as I could tell from both her story & Dh's version, both my son (really, my husband, I'd say) and our neighbor were at fault. She absolutely believed, though, that DS was at fault because she was "elderly," and he should respect his elders.

We just said "thanks for letting us know" and that was it. We avoided her for a while because I didn't want to get into a confrontation about it. My point is that it's hard to know what really happened in this instance. My neighbor just had this idea that people her age are to be deferred to, and so it *couldn't* have been her fault, even though she'd stopped her bike in front of DS because she didn't have the stamina to continue riding. Even all this time later (and I hadn't thought of this in ages until reading this thread), I don't think we were negligent parents. It was an accident. I can see how a child who's almost 5 could have hit someone without ill will. A fragile 87-year-old could have fallen pretty easily, so it wouldn't even have to be a huge hit for a fall to happen.

[nextcommercial]

Well, as the daughter of the elderly woman, I might be mad enough to sue. I think it would depend on how the parents of the child handled it. Their actions could go a long way to make me feel like they were truly sorry. When you are dealing with grief, you do and say things you probably wouldn't do normally.

In America, we sue for anything we can think of. You can have a robber break into your house, and hurt himself, and he can sue you and win.

Kids shouldn't be allowed to run down old women on the sidewalk, and have no consequence. It was obviously an accident. But, as with most accidents, someone can be sued for it. Even if it's a little girl. (I don't hold that child accountable... it just was an accident.. she probably felt terrible too)

A few summers ago, an 11 yr old boy was hit by a car. I live in the desert, so it was 113 that day. He was hurt, but he was seriously burned while lying on the hot pavement. His parents sued the people who stopped to help him, because they didn't move him off of the pavement. They didn't sue the man who hit him, they sued the good Samaritans. (can't remember how that turned out though.. but, it was big news here)

When I was five, I was racing on my two wheeler, and I drove right into the path of an oncoming car. I hit it head on. It was completely my fault, but I couldn't stop once I knew it was happening. This was in the 60s when if you got hit by a car, you were in trouble at home for getting hit by a car. LOL. My MOm was mad at me for breaking my bike. But, the old man who hit me (actually, I hit him) picked me up the next day, took me to Sears and bought me a new orange bike! (who sends their five year old to sears with an old man?) It was my fault, but he wanted to replace my bike anyway. These days, a parent would sue the old man, and probably win.

[Petie1104]

Ok, so even though this isn't a criminal issue, I just e-mailed my criminal law professor to see if she could explain the ultimate goal in suing the 4 yr. old. We were actually just studying about mens rea and the levels of Purposefully, knowingly, recklessly, and negligently. I can see this act being negligence, but not on the part of the child, I see the mother as being negligent for allowing the child to ride fast on the sidewalk (yes, I know it's legal, but none the less, if anyone was negligent it was the mother). I can't see the child being negligent because for negligence the person has to comprehend that what they are doing could possibly cause harm. I don't think a child, at 4, has that ability. What's more is that I can't comprehend what the goal in suing a four year old is unless they can sue for future earnings. So I asked. Hopefully she answers me sometime tomorrow.

[Petie1104]

Originally Posted by nextcommercial

Well, as the daughter of the elderly woman, I might be mad enough to sue. I think it would depend on how the parents of the child handled it. Their actions could go a long way to make me feel like they were truly sorry. When you are dealing with grief, you do and say things you probably wouldn't do normally.

In America, we sue for anything we can think of. You can have a robber break into your house, and hurt himself, and he can sue you and win.

Kids shouldn't be allowed to run down old women on the sidewalk, and have no consequence. It was obviously an accident. But, as with most accidents, someone can be sued for it. Even if it's a little girl. (I don't hold that child accountable... it just was an accident.. she probably felt terrible too)

A few summers ago, an 11 yr old boy was hit by a car. I live in the desert, so it was 113 that day. He was hurt, but he was seriously burned while lying on the hot pavement. His parents sued the people who stopped to help him, because they didn't move him off of the pavement. They didn't sue the man who hit him, they sued the good Samaritans. (can't remember how that turned out though.. but, it was big news here)

When I was five, I was racing on my two wheeler, and I drove right into the path of an oncoming car. I hit it head on. It was completely my fault, but I couldn't stop once I knew it was happening. This was in the 60s when if you got hit by a car, you were in trouble at home for getting hit by a car. LOL. My MOm was mad at me for breaking my bike. But, the old man who hit me (actually, I hit him) picked me up the next day, took me to Sears and bought me a new orange bike! (who sends their five year old to sears with an old man?) It was my fault, but he wanted to replace my bike anyway. These days, a parent would sue the old man, and probably win.

If your state has good samaritan laws then hopefully it got thrown out. With that said, in my state, we have issues with people getting bad burns from the asphalt as well. But, in training for EMT, we are still taught that the burns are less important than stabilizing the head, and moving properly. You can survive burns without loss of life or mobility, you don't have the same odds with a broken neck that's being tossed around. I imagine it the case wouldn't win. With that said, in our society, who knows. I just hope your state has the good samaritan laws to protect those people.