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10-29-2010, 07:24 AM
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39905143/ns/us_news-the_new_york_times
A court has ruled that a four-year-old girl who was riding her bicycle with training wheels, and racing another girl along a sidewalk on East 52nd Street in Manhattan in the presence of her mother, can be charged with negligence in a lawsuit resulting from the girl striking an elderly woman with her bicycle, causing injuries that resulted in the woman's death.
In legal papers, the girl's attorney noted, “Courts have held that an infant under the age of 4 is conclusively presumed to be incapable of negligence.” But the judge declined to stretch that rule to children over 4. On October 1, he rejected a motion to dismiss the case because of the girl's age, noting that she was three months shy of turning 5 when the woman was struck, and thus old enough to be sued, based on a case from 1928.
The judge commented that the girl's attorney “correctly note[d] that infants under the age of 4 are conclusively presumed incapable of negligence,” referring to the 1928 case. “[The girl], 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.”
A court has ruled that a four-year-old girl who was riding her bicycle with training wheels, and racing another girl along a sidewalk on East 52nd Street in Manhattan in the presence of her mother, can be charged with negligence in a lawsuit resulting from the girl striking an elderly woman with her bicycle, causing injuries that resulted in the woman's death.
In legal papers, the girl's attorney noted, “Courts have held that an infant under the age of 4 is conclusively presumed to be incapable of negligence.” But the judge declined to stretch that rule to children over 4. On October 1, he rejected a motion to dismiss the case because of the girl's age, noting that she was three months shy of turning 5 when the woman was struck, and thus old enough to be sued, based on a case from 1928.
The judge commented that the girl's attorney “correctly note[d] that infants under the age of 4 are conclusively presumed incapable of negligence,” referring to the 1928 case. “[The girl], 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.”