NWR WTF - Who sues their 12 year old nephew?!

STARMOON44

This is pretty clearly a case driven by insurance. That's not mentioned in the filings because it is typically prohibited to introduce into evidence the availability of insurance- the fact finder is supposed to decide liability without that knowledge.

Just more typically poor legal reporting.

mileybangerz

http://www.people.com/article/aunt-who-sued-nephew-wrist-injury-appears-today-show?xid=socialflow_facebook_peoplemag

I had a situation happen like this before .... I was at a friend's lakehouse and was goofing around.  We had a 3-man water balloon slingshot, but no water balloons.  So we used a baseball as a substitute.  Not smart.  Long story short, I got a bruised thumb & they put me in a splint just to be safe.  I went to an urgent care center for this.  A few weeks later, I got a letter from my insurance saying that due to the details of my case, there was likely a party liable and they wanted to know more details.  I just wrote back and said "accident on a lake".  No names, no details.  I never heard back.

madamerwin

Ok, even if the aunt is not to blame for the situation, it's pretty fucked up for an insurance company to suggest that suing a 12 year-old for his actions at age 8 is a totally reasonable thing to do. It's also fucked up that the homeowners insurance company only offered her $1 after it happened.

But I still find it odd that the aunt testified that as an either year-old, he was old enough to be liable for the injury.

banana468

I'm guessing it has to do with whether or not he "knew better" as culpability.

monkeysip

OliveOilsMom said:

monkeysip said:

Maybe this sounds callous or something, but I just don't see home insurance being responsible for these kinds of things.  To me, home insurance is more like "someone slipped on my deck" not "my 8 year old was a little rowdy".  I'm sorry for this woman's incredible medical bills and her injury, but I kind of have to file this under "crap happens".  I just can't see how this little boy, his family, or the home owner's insurance is liable for a simple accident like this.

Homeowners insurance is for any person who is injured while on your property, even if someone trips over their own feet on your sidewalk.  If a non-resident at the party was the one who hurt this woman, it still would have been the homeowners' insurance that was responsible to pay for the medical bills. 

Ok, and this is me coming from a place of ignorance because I really don't know much about Homeowners insurance, but are you saying they'll cover any injury, no matter what?  I didn't think they'd cover just anything. But I'm not knowledgable about what they do and do not cover.

julieanne912

Weird, my health insurance paid just fine when I fell down my back stairs and broke my arm and had to do surgery etc.  Did this woman not have health insurance or something?  I guess I could have sued my landlord who owned the building for pain and suffering or something, but that just seems fucked up to do over something that was very clearly an accident.  

As mentioned before, this woman's complaints about how her quality of life were affected are completely stupid.  

OliveOilsMom

monkeysip said:

OliveOilsMom said:

monkeysip said:

Maybe this sounds callous or something, but I just don't see home insurance being responsible for these kinds of things.  To me, home insurance is more like "someone slipped on my deck" not "my 8 year old was a little rowdy".  I'm sorry for this woman's incredible medical bills and her injury, but I kind of have to file this under "crap happens".  I just can't see how this little boy, his family, or the home owner's insurance is liable for a simple accident like this.

Homeowners insurance is for any person who is injured while on your property, even if someone trips over their own feet on your sidewalk.  If a non-resident at the party was the one who hurt this woman, it still would have been the homeowners' insurance that was responsible to pay for the medical bills. 

Ok, and this is me coming from a place of ignorance because I really don't know much about Homeowners insurance, but are you saying they'll cover any injury, no matter what?  I didn't think they'd cover just anything. But I'm not knowledgable about what they do and do not cover.

Will homeowners insurance cover any injury, not necessarily.  Just like in this case, the medical insurance of the woman attempted to settle with the homeowners insurance, but their settlement was for $1.  So technically, no, they don't have to pay for everything.  But that is one of the reasons for homeowners insurance.

A similar example for insurance not paying would be for medical insurance, where if you needed a test and did not get it pre-authorized first, you would be responsible for payment.  Yes, it was a medical test, but because a certain set of rules were not followed, it does not get paid for.  You could equate that to the homeowners insurance, where a certain extent of liability on the part of the homeowner was not reached, the homeowners would decline to pay.

MyNameIsNot

julieanne912 said:

Weird, my health insurance paid just fine when I fell down my back stairs and broke my arm and had to do surgery etc.  Did this woman not have health insurance or something?  I guess I could have sued my landlord who owned the building for pain and suffering or something, but that just seems fucked up to do over something that was very clearly an accident.  

As mentioned before, this woman's complaints about how her quality of life were affected are completely stupid.  

That's not always the case. Medical insurance can and will refuse to pay if someone else can be liable. Look at car wreck injuries. Medical insurance will often refuse to cover all the bills or will sue the car insurance to get reimbursed. 

MyNameIsNot

kvruns said:

I saw the most recent update where it is about getting insurance money and that she had to do it but I still think that if that were really the case then it should have been included in all of the articles about it. Although if that were that case it wouldn't be the viral click bait of the other articles where everyone is appalled.

Are you really that surprised that media is leaving out information to sensationalize something?