Darn and here the title was really making me think the kid would be 5.

Have you ever been skiing? Collisions are almost inevitable, especially when you are learning how. The guy probably had just as much to do with the collision as the kid. This isn't like he was standing on the street somewhere and the kid took him out on a bike. They were both on skii's. If a kid that light managed to knock him over, he probably isn't all that good at skiing either. If you step onto something like a ski hill, you inherantly have to accept that there are some risks involved....

I agree with Stof, I've never understood how you folks below the border can justify suing for rediculous things like this.

Also, @Played_Out, I very much doubt health care is free in most parts of the world. It may be universal, but someone pays for it, either directly or through taxes. I pay 108$ a month for my good old Canadian "free" healthcare, as well as another 170$ ish a month for extended healthcare (for my entire family).

The general rule for suing minors for negligence here in the US of A is that, if a minor is engaged in an activity that requires an "adult"-level standard of care, then that minor can be held responsible for his negligent actions just as an adult can. Usually those "adult-level" activities include things like driving a motor vehicle, though. I doubt skiing would qualify, but you never know.

Either way, the guy definitely has a claim against the parents for negligence. Whether or not he'll succeed depends upon issues of fact: whether the kid was operating at reckless levels of speed without regard for the safety of his fellow skiers, and whether or not his parents were watching out for him.

That idiot mother acts like being struck by a 50-pound object traveling at high speed is no big deal.

Garcian said the rest of what I was going to say. Also, the suit against the child will almost certainly be thrown out - most states do not allow minors to be sued, and the federal courts are bound to apply Colorado law here. The case against the legal guardans will go forward though.

0_0 God, I hope to God this will not happen to me when i go first-time skiing next week.

Actually, this happened to my mother once. She said she was 15 and was in a two-lane road and went to pick up her friend, small town so the traffic stopped for a minute, and then some jackass comes flying down the road and causes a chain accident which causes minor damage to the car of her friend's dad. So either being supremacist (my mom had only been living in the states for 4 years from the Philippines) or just an arse, he sues her. Minor damage.

I guess it goes to show how hungry for cash lawyers are and the high number of assholes in the world.

That is so funny.

No one mentioned anything about insurance.

An injury can be detrimental to alot of things outside of work; even pain and mental suffering can be added on by the judge if the injuries are severe.

It's very doubtful the same applies here. Maybe he was injured and the facts will come out, but it's highly unlikely for it to equate 75 grand.

The reason he is probably suing for 75k instead of what it actually amounts to is that you almost always get less than what you ask for. So because of that, people usually sue for an out of the ball park figure, that is just insane, hoping that when/if the judge rules in their favor, they will at the very least get what they were looking for, or by some good fortune get more.

heh, this reminds me of a story my parents told me about my aunt. Supposedly she was at a stop sign and a kid on a bike (or skateboard, something like that) ran into the side of her car and she was sued for it. However, the didn't go anywhere from what I was told.

If anything, I would say that the parent/kid probably owe the guy some medical expenses because it's pretty insane how much medial bills can cost (depending on his injury of course). A family member had a surgery and it cost thousands just to stay in the ward for the afternoon.