Age Of Responsibility?

October 31, 2010 at 1:07 am

A girl can be sued over accusations she ran over an elderly woman with her training bicycle when she was 4 years old, a New York Supreme Court justice has ruled.

The ruling by King’s County Supreme Court Justice Paul Wooten stems from an incident in April 2009 when Juliet Breitman and Jacob Kohn, both aged four, struck an 87-year-old pedestrian, Claire Menagh, with their training bikes. Menagh underwent surgery for a fractured hip and died three months later.

In a ruling made public late Thursday, the judge dismissed arguments by Breitman’s lawyer that the case should be dismissed because of her young age. He ruled that she is old enough to be sued and the case can proceed. 

This is of course, mad. A judge who believes a 4 year old can reasonably foresee when her actions could foreseeable harm others is a judge who has never spent any time with a 4 year old. Maybe he has heard about them, or seen one in pictures?

Now we have a legal wet dream – surely their lawyer will in turn successfully sue the bicycle manufacturer because there wasn’t a sticker on it saying ‘WARNING: DO NOT RUN OVER OLD PEOPLE’.

And so the beat goes on….