It only took minutes for the jury to dismiss a Manhattan woman’s suit against her 12-year-old nephew for $127,000.
In fact, in just 20 minutes the jury tossed out Jennifer Connell’s claim that Sean Tarala’s exuberant hug at his eighth birthday party broke her wrist and made life “very difficult” for her, according to the Connecticut Post.
“We just didn’t think the boy was negligent,” one member of the jury told the paper while he was leaving the courthouse.
The incident happened four years ago when Connell arrived in Westport, Conn. for her nephew’s birthday.
The court heard that Sean was riding his new two-wheeler bicycle when she arrived and when he spotted her, he dropped the bike and yelled “Auntie Jen, Auntie Jen.”
“All of a sudden he was there in the air, I had to catch him and we tumbled onto the ground,” Connell testified according to the Connecticut Post.
“I remember him shouting, ‘Auntie Jen I love you,’ and there he was flying at me.”
WATCH ABOVE: A woman has taken her pre-teen nephew to court after she claims he hugged her with too much force, causing her to break her wrist. Jenny Sung explains.
She testified that the energetic embrace caused her to fall to the ground and break her wrist. She testified that since the incident, her life in Manhattan has been “very difficult.”
“I live in Manhattan in a third-floor walk-up so it has been very difficult,” she said. “And we all know how crowded it is in Manhattan.”
“I was at a party recently, and it was difficult to hold my hors d’oeuvre plate,” she said, according to the newspaper.
The lawsuit claims, “The injuries, losses and harms to the plaintiff were caused by the negligence and carelessness of the minor defendant in that a reasonable eight years old under those circumstances would know or should have known that a forceful greeting such as the one delivered by the defendant to the plaintiff could cause the harms and losses suffered by the plaintiff.”
– With files from The Associated Press
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