Aunt loses bid to sue nephew for a hug that broke her wrist

A woman from New York has lost a bizarre bid to sue her nephew for accidentally breaking her wrist. Jennifer Connell, a 54-year-old Human Resources Manager, was seeking £84,000 damages, after her nephew jumped into her arms to hug her and something went awry - breaking her wrist.

Sean Tarala, from Westport in Connecticut, is 12 now, but at the time of the incident he was celebrating his eighth birthday. He saw his aunt, jumped into her arms for a hug, and accidentally broke her wrist. Her lawyer claimed he should have known that what he was doing could have caused an injury.

She took him to court seeking damages. The New York Daily News reported that during the odd trial she claimed that the break had damaged her quality of life, and that she had been at a party where she struggled to hold the hors d'oeuvres plate. The jurors took 25 minutes to decide that she deserved nothing.

Damaging family

This case was shocking, but as we reported last month, there has been a shocking increase in people suing one another for the kinds of accidents that in the past would simply have been attributed to children being children.

In August this year an Austrian skiier took a six-year-old girl to court after a collision on the slopes that the woman said caused her serious injuries. She decided to go to court after her attempt to sue the adult supervising the child was thrown out.

In September, the neighbours of a family in California filed a lawsuit against their 11-year-old autistic son, claiming he was a 'public nuisance', who was reducing the value of their property. The judge issued an injunction on the family, ordering them to control their son, so they decided to leave the area.

It's hard to imagine these cases happening in the UK, but we seem increasingly willing to turn to the courts. Direct Line says there has been a big increase in the number of claims for personal injury to children when playing round at a friend's house.

But what do you think? Are these just children being children, or would you like to see more children being held accountable?

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