Legal Question in Personal Injury in Pennsylvania
Accident in Middle School
My son was injured at school in October of 1999. He was in a class and told a teach that he had to go get a sports physical. The teacher never checked the records showing all students that were suppose to leave class for a physical, my son was not on the list. My son left the class to roam the halls and in turn jumped up to touch a doorway that had a lip on it. He grabbed a hold of the top of the door jam, flipped in the air, hit the ground, and was knocked unconscience and broke his left clavicle. I recieved a call from the schools Vice Principal at work who explained that he was being taken to the Hospital by ambulance a she wanted to know what hospital I would like them to take him to. I explained the closet and that I would leave work immdiately to go to the Hospital. The VP explained that she would investigate why my son was permitted to roam the halls and get back to me. To this date I have yet to recieve such an explanation. Do we have a right to file a suit against the school for thier negligence, and what is the satute of limitations on this type of claim? Thank You.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Accident in Middle School
The statute of limitations for a personal injury claim in Pennsylvania is two years. For adults the clock starts to run on the date of the accident. Minors have two years from the date they turn 18 to file a lawsuit for a tort that occurred before they were 18.
In this case, it appears that the proper response to the school is: "Thanks for taking care of my son when he injured himself. I'd swat his behind if he hadn't already punished himself enough." I am sorry to hear that teenage hijinks resulted in such a serious injury to your son, but to me it does not sound like a reason to sue the school.
This is general information for discussion purposes. We would have to have an attorney-client relationship for me to give legal advice.
Re: Accident in Middle School
Bruce's reply covered the statute of limitations.
I'm not going to give any advice about whether or not you might have a basis to claim negligence on the school's part.
But for you and others who may have claims against a public school, Pennsylvania has a law which provides partial immunity to school districts and government units.
Two features of this are particularly important:
First, apart from the statute of limitations, a written notice of claim must be given to the government unit within 6 months of the incident.
Second, generally a government defendant can be liable for a dangerous condition of real estate, but is immune from claims of "negligent supervision."
Thus, anyone who has possible injury claims against a school must consult an attorney right away after the incident.
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