Legal Question in Personal Injury in New York
Wildlife Center Injury Lawsuit
A Wildlife Center has caged animals, and allows the public to walk through.
Signs are places everywhere warning that they are dangerous and to stay two feet away from the cages, no fingers in the cages, no touching no climbing on the cages. So on so forth.
These are placed on every cage, usually more than once.
A child was climbing on a cage, which was clearly marked. This child was injured by a vulture which was in the cage
The Wildlife Center was sued by the mother of this child for medical damages.
The center did win the case, but not by much.
Why wasn't this case thrown out?
How could there even be a case when there was warnings everywhere to not touch/come near/climb on the cages?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Wildlife Center Injury Lawsuit
Cases like this can seem obvious but when all of the details come in to a court the question becomes more grey. For example, if the child was 4 years old and not able to read the sign, and was there under the inadequate supervision of the wildlife center with no parent present and the supervising adult left the children alone for 30 minutes right in front of the cage while she went to get lunch then the case might have gone the other way. Each case must be evaluated on the specific fact and if there really is no case then it usually does get thrown out.
Re: Wildlife Center Injury Lawsuit
I am not familr with the case offhand, but the rationale for warnings in jurisprudence, is that it must adequately protect against the forseeable risks. It is a forseeable risk that a child, too young to read, would get too close to the cage, and therefore, the warning was an inadequate protection.
That the center won at all I gather was a finding of negligence against the parents who brought the case on the child's behallf.
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