Suing the Sippy Cup Set: it’s Tortelicious
November 2nd, 2010. By LucyC
Sweetie, can you even spell N-E-G-L-I-G-E-N-C-E? This is one of those ‘the truth is stranger than fiction’ moments. A six-year old girl can be sued, a New York Supreme Court justice has ruled, for her actions when she was four—yes, four years of age—which involved running her training bicycle into an elderly woman. The incident resulted in 87-year Claire Menagh falling, breaking her hip and subsequently undergoing hip surgery. However she died three months later (not related to the bike accident).
So, who’s to blame? Well according to Justice Paul Wooten, then four-year old Juliet Breitman could be, and the courts should decide. The ruling by Justice Wooten also clears the decks for Juliet’s partner in crime, Jacob Kohn, who was also 4 years of age at the time, to face a similar lawsuit, as both of them allegedly struck the woman.
Juliet’s mother was present and reportedly supervising the children at the time of the incident, and based on that fact and Juliet’s tender age, the lawyer representing the child argued, unsuccessfully, that that the case against his client should be dismissed. (Can a five-year old legally retain a lawyer? She’s not even old enough to vote or drive…)
Justice Wooten’s ruling, made public last Thursday, reportedly ruled Juliet is old enough to be sued and the case can proceed. “For infants above the age of four there is no bright-line rule,” he wrote, adding that the girl had been three months from turning five.
“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.” Those seem like reasonable statements to me.
In his concluding remarks Justice Wooten wrote 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.”
Well, this certainly will be an interesting one to watch.
Now whose baby is THAT? On a lighter note—literally—a woman in Dayton, Ohio who was just about to have her own child decided, for whatever reasons, to rob a Wal-Mart. Problem was, she left it just a little too late. As she was being arrested she went into labor.
When the doctors were prepping her for a Caesarean section—in prison—they found more than they bargained for. Low and behold weren’t there just some illicit drugs hidden in one of her body cavities. I’m betting those didn’t come from Wal-Mart.
McDonald’s latest: 65-pounder. I love this—McDonald’s has been ordered to cough up $17,500 to man in Brazil who reportedly gained 65 pounds while working at the burger joint over a 12-year period. That certainly seems possible. FYI—that works out to $269.24 a pound.
The 32-year-old manager said he felt obligated to sample the products to make sure standards were high. Of course he did. McDonald’s is weighing its legal options, apparently, pardon the pun.
Look! That’s my son—in pictures! Don’t count on Mother to get your back. A crook in the UK—well would-be crook really—was turned in by his mother after she identified him on security camera footage. Lorenzo Mason’s mother saw the footage in the media and decided she should do the right thing and turn him in.
What crime had Lorenzo committed? A crime of marked stupidity. He had robbed a bookmaker’s office and just before reaching the door with his bag of booty he took off his mask. Presto! Instant celebrity.
Lesson here—think twice before you teach your mother to use the new flat panel or a computer—especially if you’re planning on engaging in anything slightly dodgy—like robbery.
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