Jennifer Connell, of New York City, has lost a case but appears to have won the distinction of being the worst aunt alive. Connell, 54, sued her 8-year-old nephew Sean Tarala for $127,000 for jumping into her arms at a party. The act caused her to fall and break her wrist. It is the type of thing that happens in families but Connell sued her nephew in torts. A six-member Connecticut jury unanimously rejected the claim in just 25 minutes — barely enough time to get to the jury room, take their seats, and vote down the case.
The complaint alleged that “The injuries, losses and harms to the plaintiff were caused by the negligence and carelessness of the minor defendant in that a reasonable eight-year-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.”
The lawsuit is reminiscent of the case of Garratt v. Dailey, 49 Wn.2d 499, 304 P.2d 681 (Wash. 1956) where Brian Dailey, 5, injured Naomi Garrett at her sister Ruth’s home when he pulled out a chair in a prank as Garrett was about to sit down. The court found for Garrett. Dailey did not intend to hurt Garrett but was substantially certain of that she would be injury as result of her actions.
In this case, it is not clear that Sean could be viewed as satisfying even the substantial certainty standard.
Connell insisted that she loves Sean and described him as a “very loving, sensitive” boy but still wanted him declared guilty and hit with a huge damage award.
Connell is a human resources manager and said that she was taken by surprise by her loving nephew: “All of a sudden he was there in the air, I had to catch him and we tumbled onto the ground . . . I remember him shouting, ‘Auntie Jen, I love you!’ and there he was, flying at me.” She described the horror of the aftermath of the accident and that recently she was at a party and “it was difficult to hold my hors d’oeuvres plate.”
I cannot imagine why the jury was not enraged at the thought of it.
Of course, this is an accident. Lots of accidents occur. By definition, they are not intentional, but there has been harm–damages. Accidents, whether we all care to admit it or not, come with costs. Who will bear those costs? If an eight year old kid in the neighborhood, for example, shattered one of your home’s windows with a baseball, would you not seek to have that cost assumed by his parents? If an eight year old child, by accident, of course, drove his bike into your sitting vehicle, causing thousands in repairs, would you not seek compensation from his parents, especially if you only carry liability insurance? It’s so easy to judge this woman, but in reality most on here would behave in a manner contrary to their supposed indignation. Absent full knowledge of what her insurance would cover, including what is contained in the medical reports regarding this incident and the long-term effects, it is unfair to judge her attempt at garnering compensation.
bam bam – it is the amount of compensation she is asking that is the problem.
bam bam, I realize I am not like most people in that I loathe insurance and have never filed a lawsuit against anyone, but my personal response would be to take care of my injuries on my own dime. Leave the child out of it. I have had a window broken by a child, and I did not feel compelled to seek compensation. I paid out of my own pocket to fix it. Of course, on the flip side, if my child ever did such a thing, I would be going to my neighbor and paying for it without any need for a lawsuit.
Those must be some big hors d’oeuvres. Either that or she’s taking more than her share of the liver pate.
If she, the Aunt, is a human resources manager, I would assume that she is covered under a company insurance policy for her medical bills and probably was able to get a leave of absence IF it was necessary. For a broken wrist, that she could still use to eat her hors d’oeuvres before going to the hospital, I doubt that she would be unable to work either.
So, I don’t see where she gets off asking for such damages.
What a witch. To target this small boy for an obvious accident is just horrible. No matter what bad blood she may have with the family, the husband/father or anyone else, what emotional damage she has done to this small boy is cruel and spiteful.
Her attorney should be pistol whipped. Can someone get the name and email address of that attorney? We need to dump.
Her attorney, if she retained one, should have received the Salesperson of the Year award for convincing her that her suit had an iota of merit.
bettykath, I’m guessing you have been a plaintiff? LOL!
I will condemn her action.
Regardless of the financial implications, the fact is that she sued a family member, a little boy, not a house.
It’s an ugly thing she did.
It may be that there were considerable expenses associated with her injury and the only way she could get compensated was through e.g. a home owners policy and the insurance would pay only in the case of a lawsuit. I won’t condemn the woman without knowing more.
It’s gonna be some Thanksgiving celebration around the ole, dysfunctional family table. Pass the yams, please.
Having grown up in CT., the venue of this lawsuit, I know the reality vs. the perception. The reality is CT. is mostly blue collar, ethnic people. The perception is the upscale southern CT. NYC suburbs and coastline. A plaintiff’s attorney made the horrible mistake of putting my tough, common sense, mother on a supermarket slip n’ fall case in Hartford County. The jury elected mom foreperson. The facts were a woman fell on a jar of pickles that had fallen and broke. The issue in these cases is always, how long was the hazard in place prior to the incident, and the testimony was quite varied. But my mom focused in on the testimony of the plaintiff. She stated she was in line w/ her groceries when she remembered forgetting an item and left the line to go get it. Well, that was one of my dear mom’s pet peeves. Mom asked her fellow jurors what type of people almost invariably do this. They are disorganized, often rude, people who expect others to wait while they leave and get the forgotten item. Mom also pointed out these people are inattentive and usually in a hurry. The jury found for the store and the plaintiff got nothing.
Trope-a-dope – most people in NY just shop for the day. They do not have large supermarkets like the rest of the country. The land is too expensive. So, she would be walking up three flights carrying her groceries which she would be doing almost daily.
I broke my wrist in high school and there are times when it still gives me trouble. I think she was crazy to sue however.
If KC and Rick are correct, and this lawsuit was born out of spite or bad blood, then isn’t a frivolous lawsuit penalty appropriate? Suing the boy to get at the father? Spite? Misuse of the judicial system?
“I live in Manhattan in a third-floor walkup so it has been very difficult”
Does she walk on her hands?
Having worked in this personal injury industry for decades, I can assure you there are many ludicrous suits much worse than this one. While there has been fraud for centuries, serendipity had me working in this nascent industry when attorneys just began advertising. That is when lawsuits became an industry and fraud rampant.
As folks here have remarked, lawsuits involving family bring all the toxicity that is involved in dysfunctional families. I have worked lawsuits of family suing family from anything from auto accidents[most common] to slip and falls, to dog bites, to swing collapses, you name it. Investigating these incidents and doing family background, almost invariably it was obvious Thanksgiving dinner had been like heavyweight bouts for decades, prior to litigation. But, sometimes that wasn’t the case. The family had its problems like ALL FAMILIES, but within normal limits. Then, greed, one of the Seven Deadly Sins takes over, and the family is torn apart. But, the attorney gets his contingency fee!
“Connell is a human resources manager and said that she was taken by surprise by her loving nephew:”
No doubt. She had tried and tried to push him away but he keeps loving her. What’s wrong with this kid?
Yes, there must be far more to the story here.
I don’t know if it’s ever been studied, but lawsuits against family members seem likely to cause a permanent rift.
Most people, save for malignant narcissists, would know that.
So perhaps the suicide was a precipitating or related factor.
Perhaps there was already a family split, and this was done in spite.
But the suit ended up targeting a young boy.
Holy cow.
How blind with rage do you have to be not to see how the boy will most certainly blame himself for this, how he likely already wonders about his role in his mother’s death?
Horrible people.
Perhaps juries should be permitted to assess frivolous lawsuit penalties.
http://patch.com/connecticut/fairfield/memorial-for-lisa-jaynes-tarala
Her memorial notice notice says Lisa’s friends – not family or husband suggest a donation to a suicide prevention or domestic violence center. I couldn’t find any reports saying it directly but if the wife committed suicide maybe her family blames the husband.
Our culture is so sue happy. I would love to hear ideas of tort reform that would somehow prevent these kinds of cases from even being filed. Same goes for medical malpractice suits, etc. So many people are always looking for a way to use the court system to enrich themselves.
How could she possibly arrive at either 127k or 191k (I’ve seen both figures reported) in damages when the only impacts identified are difficulty with stairs and holding plates? I suspected when I saw this the break somehow caused her to lose her job, but nothing like that was mentioned anywhere.
The report says the boys mother died (which I presume was the plaintiff’s sister given the lack of other identification) last year while the event occurred 4 years ago. Either there’s some bad blood there or he’s rich and she wants a piece before he disappears from her life.
The plaintiff has neither honor nor shame.
In the news story linked it is reported also that she lives in Manhattan and stated…
“I was at a party recently and it was difficult to hold my hors d’oeuvres plate.”
Well right this way your majesty. How may we assist you with that plate’s burden?
As if that wasn’t enough the boy’s mom died this year.
Reportedly she is also a Human Resources manager. Figures.