Recently an aunt sued her now 12 year old nephew for an injury he caused when he was eight years old. In 2011 the boy was celebrating his birthday when his aunt came to the door. He was so excited to see her that he ran up and knocked her down, causing serious injury to her wrist that resulted in two, possibly three, surgeries. This article stated how the case was not about family feuding, but rather insurance policy. The aunt was suing for the money to cover her surgeries which had nothing to do with the fact that this was a 12 year old boy (who, by the way, does not have $127,000 lying around).
I think this is pretty ridiculous. The aunt lost the case, needless to say, but seriously? I think there must be more going on than just one family member suing the other...there has to be some past spitefulness that the public doesn't know about. I wonder how the aunt broke the news to her sibling. Or if she even did at all. Maybe she let the attorney handle that...eish. What was interesting about the article is that the author focused most on the insurance/law aspect of the whole deal. I preferred the story line of the story more than anything, but I appreciate the fact that this was the logistical aspects of the story more than the headline. One law that brings up the highly sensitive, popular topic of "can I sue a family member?" is the Interspousal Tort. This law has been around since the 1860s and though it doesn't directly connect to this Aunt v. Nephew case, it shares an interesting connection of the two. In the tort (tort: a wrongdoing or infringement of a right) it states that a married couple cannot sue one another. This typically comes up in the case of a car crash or such. Though this tort started out strong for a whole half century, it was abolished by seven jurisdictions between 1914 and 1920 and within another 50 years its tides had dramatically changed from a majority to a minority. I think it's interesting that it seems to be becoming more of a "thing" to sue your own family member. We see this in the current article as well as in the decline of the Interspousal Tort.
Like the article said... that will be an awkward Thanksgiving dinner.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/15/opinions/cevallos-aunt-nephew-lawsuit/
I seriously don't think the aunt should have sued the boy. It doesn't make any sense. The boy wouldn't be able to pay it so it's clear his parents would be paying.
ReplyDeleteThe boy is 12 years old, why is he being sued? More importantly, why is he being sued by is aunt? I do agree with you, this is a pretty ridiculous story. I had also never heard of the Interspousal Tort law, that was very interesting, and a little odd, to read about.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing I thought of was 'Why is an eight-year- old being sued?' then it was 'Why is it the aunt that sueing him?' and the last thing was 'Why is it allowed to sue someone under 18 years old?' So many unanswered questions, that shouldn't be unanswered. (Alejandra Hernandez 6th period)
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