October 29, 2010

DT Friday Freakout: 4yo Can Be Sued From The Grave Edition

Holy crap, I don't know what's more freakout-able: that two 4-year-olds riding their training wheel bikes on an East Side sidewalk, knocked over an 87-year-old neighbor, who died three weeks months later from complications related to hip fracture surgery.

Or that the woman's estate [update after NYT correction: first her, then her son] would sue not just the parents, but the 4-year-olds, for negligence.

Or that there is apparently nothing newer than a 1928 case--an era, DT reader DT points out, when Science brought us "thriving state-run eugenics programs"--that the judge used to determine that a 4-year-old is a "reasonably prudent child" and thus mentally and developmentally capable of even acting with something like "negligence."

Or that the judge's decision to let the case proceed against the kid [the other kid apparently did not contest] said that there's no evidence at all to "indicate 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," No evidence beyond that fact that the kid is four years old, of course.

I'll have to go with D, All of the above.

4-Year-Old Can Be Sued, Judge Rules in Bike Case [nyt]

1 Comment

Actually, she died 3 MONTHS after the incident (NY Times corrected themselves). And it was her that initiated the suit, then her son took it over after her death.

It's very sad, and ridiculous.

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