Four-Year-Old Child Can Be Sued for Negligence

The New York Times has reported that a judge has ruled that a 4-year-old girl can be sued, as well as her parents, for negligent behavior. 

Justice Paul Wooten, of the State Supreme Court in Manhattan, has cited cases back to 1928 that permit lawsuits to be filed against anyone above the age of four. He has not found the child liable, he has only permitted the lawsuit to be filed.

The child in this case was closer to age 5 at the time of the incident.

The suit alleges that Juliet Breitman and Jacob Kohn, both four-year-olds at the time, sped their bicycles in front of a building on East 52^nd street. Both were supervised at the time by their mothers, Dana Breitman and Rachel Kohn.

Juliet was racing on her bicycle, complete with training wheels, on a Manhattan sidewalk when she struck 87-year-old Claire Menagh two years ago. Menagh was "seriously and severely injured."

The accident fractured Menagh's hip and she had to undergo surgery to repair it.  Within three months of the accident Menagh died from unrelated causes.

Menagh's estate sued both the children and their mothers for negligent behavior. James P. Tyrie, Juliet's lawyer, stated that the girl was too young to be liable and that "She was riding her bicycle with training wheels under the supervision of her mother." He contends that Juliet was not "engaged in an adult activity."

Tyrie said that the "Courts have held that an infant under the age of four is conclusively presumed to be incapable of negligence."

Justice Wooten has hinged his decision on the fact that Juliet was 3 months shy of being 5 when she ran into Menagh. Wooten wrote, that Tyrie "correctly notes that infants under the age of 4 are conclusively presumed incapable of negligence. Juliet Breitman, however, was over the age of 4 at the time of the subject incident. For infants above the age of 4, there is no bright-line rule."

Tyrie argued that the little girl should not be held responsible as she was under the supervision of her mother at the time. Wooten then wrote, "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 concluded by writing that there was nothing to suggest that Juliet's mother "had any active role in the alleged incident, only that the mother was 'supervising,' a term that is too vague to hold meaning here." 

The judge also found no evidence of Juliet's "lack of intelligence or maturity 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."

The lawsuit against Rachel and Jacob Kohn is proceeding as they have not asked for dismissal.

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