Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Maryland
can child be sued?
Can my 13 year old son be sued for an accident that occured while employed as contract labor? (He hit another person's foot with a pallet jack.) Can I be sued? Would the Agent that my son and the other person work for be responsible since they were both considered contract labor? The corporation that owns the warehouse and the pallet jack state that they are not responsible since the Agent, my son's boss, is a self-employed, contracted agent of the corporation
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: can child be sued?
You seemed to have let out a number of facts. I'll assume that your
son was working and not horsing around at the time of the accident. If
this is the case, the matter should be covered by workers' compensation and
no lawsuit should be filed. However, if one is, and you or your son are named
parties, seek an attorney immediately, because you have a limited amount
of time in which to answer the complaint. If you have a home owners insurance,
the insurance company may represent you if you have such coverage, check with your agent. I hope this is
helpful.
Re: can child be sued?
If the person who was injured was another employee working along with your son, and your son was doing the work he was hired to do at the time, the injured employee can't sue. He can file a worker's compensation claim against the employer and if the employer has insurance, they'll handle it.
If the injured person was not an employee, he would be better off suing your son's employer, who would be responsible in that capacity as long as your son was doing his job.
Generally, a minor can't be sued in his own name, but you could be named as his parent in a representative capacity only. In other words, you aren't personally responsible and your assets aren't subject to such a suit. That's why it wouldn't make much sense for the injured person to sue a 13-year old.