E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSHow young is too young to be sued? How about 4 years old?
A judge in New York recently ruled that a young girl can be sued for negligence after a 2009 accident: According to the lawsuit, two four-year-olds were racing their bicycles on a busy New York City street, while their mothers supervised, when they hit an 87-year-old woman named Claire Menaugh. She broke her hip and required surgery, and died three months later of unrelated causes.
Menaugh’s estate sued both the mothers and their children for negligence. One of the families tried to have their child dismissed from the litigation, claiming she was too young to be sued – noting that her bike still had training wheels. But Justice Paul Wooten of the State Supreme Court in Manhattan ruled otherwise, writing that anyone older than 4 is legal fair game.
According to The New York Times, the judge wrote there was no evidence that the 4-year-old defendant lacked “intelligence of maturity” and said that any “reasonably prudent child” would know not to engage in risky behavior with or without a parent present.
Do you have a “reasonably prudent” 4-year-old? Do you think children should be held liable for bike-riding accidents, or their parents -- or no one at all? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
"Like" TODAY Moms on Facebook, and follow us @TodayMoms
Leave a Comment:
The judge is an idiot
That is just absolute nonsense. All that judge wants is attention.
Leave it to some STUPID Yankee Judge in Ny to say a 4 yr old has Maturity..DisROBE this idiot..Prob some dam dem that voted for Obama..
Sorry, but it is republican judges that keep pushing for children younger and younger to be tried as an adult
actually Paul Wooten is a Democrat. Republicans are pushing for teenagers to take accountibility for there actions for which they do know better, not 4 year olds!
Are you serious??? Maybe the parents because they were there and are supposed to be watching the children and their actions. I understand accidents happen but these are children. Is no one protected under the Judaical System??? I am sorry the elderly woman passed away and my heart goes out to her family. She passed away from unrelated causes, who's to say that she would not have passed away even if the accident had not happened. What would she have wanted, would she want her family to sue children?? Leave the babies alone!!!!
You can not be serious. A 4 year old mature please there are 40 year olds who are not mature yet.This judge should be put in a physiciatric ward for being a luny.All you need is a little common sense this was an accident caused by a baby come on know.What is the world coming too lets please concentrate on punishing the bad guys for once!!!
The day we start treating our four-year-olds like they're civilized and self-controlled adults is the day we lose the privilage of calling ourselves fair and just.
Why would you even THINK to sue a four-year-old. It's not like she's a millionaire. She's probably worth 500 dollars...at the most. This of course depends on what she has and even then its technically the property of the parents. That family is just wasting paper, court time, and breath. The judge needs a stern talking to. Just think about what the children are going through. They are suffering enough as it is.
Like I said, the day we stop following our hearts and guts and start appealing to some corrupted power is the day we lose what makes us human: our sense of spirit and the judgement to discern right from wrong. No wonder the US is such a crule place all around. Thanks to all the people that are STILL good and pure of heart. Your acts of kindness will go a long way towards fighting the flow of darkness that now threatens humanity. God help us all.
The parents are fair game for not keeping the kids in check but a 4yr old??? Really??? That is absurd. Expecting them to anticipate the movements of an old lady they ride past on the sidewalk is just unrealistic. Does this judge have kids or better yet have they ever been around a 4yr old who is wrapped up in play? They are oblivious to the outside world, it is part of what makes childhood so great, they can escape to their own world no matter where they are.
This is ridiculous. I know 4 year olds that aren't potty trained yet. Most children don't learn self-restraint and self-preservation until at least 5 and that is an average. These are the same kids who BELIEVE without a doubt that the following exists: Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy but this judge wants to think they are old enough to discern the consequences of all their actions? Wow.
Not rule that can't be bent...I really know those 2 kids planed to knock that lady down. I have a 4 yr old g/daughter that rides a bike with training wheels..yep she ran over the dog, my foot and just missed her sister....in her very mature mind said I want to run over dog, sister and granny...Think the judge and estate is in this together????
okay this is just a bunch of bull crap. Are you seriously suing a four-year old???? A baby?? Where's your heart. I thought the whole point of having a judicial system was to defend the innocent and the weak? Where's the justice in suing a kid that's probably traumatized from the whole incident and doesn't understand what;s going on. I remember being afour-year-old and i did worse things than racing with my friend on our bicycles. Yeah im sorry that the lady died but the cause of death had no relevance to the accident. SO MR-HIGH-AND-MIGHTY JUDGE IF YOUR READING THIS WHY DONT YOU REMOVE THAT STICK FROM YOUR POMPOUS BUTT AND DISMISS THE CASE!!!!! xp
Can that judge be recalled? 'Cause I don't recall my four year old having the judgment to avoid such an accident. And can that family be slapped for being stupid and greedy? Suing that four year old won't bring the woman back, and I would imagine she'd thank us for slapping the stupid out of her family....sheesh!
Grinch is out early for Christmas, give'em kid's piggy bank so they can put it on her grave to show her that they got revenge.
on a serious note, May God bless her soul, and give her family the courage to forgive the child for being a child.
Fine. Since children are "responsible" and can be held liable, may I also assume that the judge will advocate that children will be allowed to consume alcohol, buy firearms, and enlist in the military? After all, those are the things that we allow "responsible" people to do.
The judge needs to be impeached and removed. Then, have he/she moved out of NY so they do not further poison the populace of NY with even more lunatic ideas.
Amazing what we've come to, isn't it?
What can a 4 year old be sued for?
Isn't this just a way to sue the parents twice?
OMG how screwed up is our system that we are gonna sue a 4 yearold
The child should not have been allowed to ride his 'toy' at that speed. If he or she was going that fast that he or she could knock over an old woman, well, hell...it is very irresponsible on the parent's part. An elderly person cannot possibly be expected to respond quick enough to this kind of incident. Put yourself in this woman's mind-set...I can guarantee if she had been the mother of some diplomat or congress person, the parent would be up on charges for failure to control their child.This all could have been alot worse...the woman could have gotten a head fracture. Think about it...
Exactly what speed is too fast to knock over an elderly person? Honestly, she could have been extremely unstable on her feet and been barely bumped. I don't see anywhere in the article that the child was going 10 mph and the woman went flying head over feet through the air...
Many, many years ago my child was standing on the sidewalk...I was some five feet away from him in the grass, then suddenly from out of nowhere came a young girl riding a ten speed bike...she hit him so hard he was thrown up in the air and came down on his head. I rushed him to the hospital and thank GOD he did not have a head fracture or any broken bones, but he did stutter for about six months...the young girl lived down the street and didn't even stop! After I was assured that my child could come home I went to the young girl's house and spoke with her parents. They were very apologetic and the bike was taken away from her for about a week, but what really got my attention was what they had told her in regards to her bike.She was ten or eleven so I asked them why did they think she was mature enough to ride such a bike??? Their reasoning was that as long as she road it on the sidewalk it was okay, and that riding it on the street was too dangerous. duhhhhh. If this had happened in this day and age...things would have been very different. She had to have seen my child!!! and thought that maybe he might step off the sidewalk...NOT. He was two. She never slowed down. So...my point is this...this child has no business riding at that speed. The parent must be the one with the maturity.
A reasonably prudent child? A four year old? For real?!
I will have to talk to my best friend about how she feels about this...but currently she is busy trying to pull a marshmallow out of her 4 year old sons ears with tweezers.
No, seriously - she is.