In our last post we discussed that a New York state district judge ruled that a four-year-old could be sued for negligence in a personal injury case. We also discussed the events that led up to the New York lawsuit. In this post we will discuss the legal arguments from the case.

To rehash the facts, the two young children had been riding their bikes with training wheels down the sidewalk while their mothers supervised. At some point, the children ran into an elderly woman on the sidewalk. According to the lawsuit that was filed by the elderly woman's estate, the two four-year-olds seriously and severely injured the elderly woman while they were racing their bikes down the sidewalk.

In response to the estate's lawsuit, the lawyer for the four-year-old girl argued that because the young girl was riding her bike under the supervision of her mother she was not engaged in an adult activity at the time of the accident. Therefore she was too young to be held responsible for the accident. The lawyer also argued that courts as a clear rule have construed children under the age of 4 to be too young to cause an act of negligence.

The judge presiding over the case declined to apply the rule to children over four years of age. The judge explained the young girl was three months away from turning five when the accident occurred and was old enough to be responsible and therefore sued. The judge further explained that a parent's presence does not allow a child to engage in risky behavior. Only if the parent encouraged the risky behavior would the child not be held responsible.

Source: The New York Times, "4-Year-Old Can Be Sued, Judge Rules in Bike Case," Alan Feuer, 10/28/10