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A UNITED STATES schoolboy sued by his aunt for accidentally breaking her wrist during a hug at his birthday party said on national television that he still loves her.
Jennifer Connell (54) went to court in the northeastern state of Connecticut demanding $127,000 (€111,340) compensation after her then eight-year-old nephew jumped into her arms, fracturing her wrist.
A jury threw out the case on Tuesday in just 25 minutes.
“She would never do anything to hurt the family or myself, and she loves us,” Sean Tarala told NBC’s Today show, dressed in a dark suit jacket and sitting next to a bashful Connell.
“I love her and she loves me,” the now 12-year-old added.
Connell said she had never wanted to sue her nephew, but did so purely as a technicality having been told it was the only way to get her medical bills covered by homeowner’s insurance. She told NBC:
We love each other very much and this was simply a… formality within an insurance claim.
The accident happened at Sean’s eighth birthday party in the upscale town of Westport in Connecticut on 18 March, 2011.
Connell alleged in her complaint that “a reasonable eight-year-old” should have known that such a “forceful” greeting “could cause the harms and losses suffered” by the plaintiff.
She accused him of “negligence and carelessness”, and alleged that her “ability to pursue and enjoy life’s activity” had been “reduced”.
In a country renowned for its litigious culture and readiness to sue, Connell was pilloried in the US media, who denounced her as “the worst aunt ever” and a “disgrace”.
The elegant 54-year-old said the backlash came as “a complete shock” and that she had been flooded with calls from friends telling her not to go online or turn on the television.
“It was amazing how I walked into court that morning and walked out all over social media, and it just spun and spun,” she said.
It was sort of heartbreaking and really painful but also like walking into a film of someone else’s life and I hadn’t been briefed.
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It says more about America’s healthcare and insurances industries than it does about the people involved.
exactly! I’d do the same and pretend to “sue” my nephew and get the insurance company to pay my overly expensive medical bills if his parents were ok with it.
I don’t think this has anything to do with insurance. Sounds like she has a good job in human resources and can afford to live on the upper east side of Manhattan, so it would be highly unusual for someone in her situation not to have good health insurance. This just sounds like she’s being a greedy bitch and wanted more money to cover the “emotional distress” she experienced and knew the young lad had it to spare because of inheritance from his mothers death.
Id say she does have good health insurance,so good they cover the $127000 hospital bill but also with a stipulation that she sues whoever caused the damage to try and recover the money,insurance companies always try to recover the money.She probably sued her nephew after getting assurances from a solicitor that the case would be thrown out immediately. If she had to pay those hospital bills herself she could have went bankrupt,over a broken wrist,that is the bigger story.
That’s not how Health insurance works in NYC. So there’s no such stipulations, Karl.
If the family had contents or liabilities insurance thats exactly how it would work.
I live in NYC, I have health insurance and I’ve had to make plenty of claims. If you’re covered, you generally pay very little and there’s no such stipulations like you describe in order to have your medical bills payed. It’s not like car insurance where you claim it back, it’s paid automatically and you just pay a small co-pay/deductible. Thrust me, that is ridicules.
Awful backwards country at times.
No, it was one idiot who was told to fck off by a jury.
True, but it says she basically had to sue to get her medical expenses paid. I’m delighted she was told to fck off, but the fact that she had to go down that avenue is backwards.
I’d break her other wrist…stupid b**ch !!!
Just what can expect here in the good old USofA. Being Irish and working in the US I keep a larger than normal personnel space between myself and
Did you even read the article? No, of course not.
The story is all over the wire here twit. You obviously have never been sued and fraudulently at that. I spent a small fortune defending my business against spurious claim. Which involved oral dental damage to the tune of $70,000. The case was eventually thrown out after costing $12,000 in court cost that I will never recoup.
Then she’d sue you for that. Sure where would it end then?! She’d have 2 snapped wrists, another date in court and you’d be sent to the Joy. Violence has its place for sure Aidan but not here… Unless she came at you with a hug and it was in self defense, it’s not called for.
“Get on the telly and tell ‘em you still love me, or I’ll crush you, you snotty nosed little twerp”.
My suspicions are that the two of them might have been conspiring on this one.
He might have been on a nice little earner.
It probably wouldn’t haven taken much to pay off a kid either. “I’ll take the cash and buy you a bar of chocolate every day for a whole year”. “A whole year? Deal.”
‘Can’t I even get to keep the suit Auntie Jennifer?’
“Suit? What do ya want a goddam suit for, you’re 12. I’ll give you a suit alright. A straight jacket is what you’ll be wearing if you don’t take that off right now and put it back into that suit bag before you get chocolate all over it. Don’t make me come over to ya.”
The law suit you mean?
Every publication who made a big deal out of this suit should be ashamed of itself.
This was a non-story turned into a click-bait fiasco by the media.
It is not unusual for people to sue as a means to (legitimately) get insurance money. You have unfairly made it look as though it was a pernicious act. It is utterly pathetic journalism.
I can’t believe her medical bills for a broken wrist was $1,27,000!!
A bit like the case over here recently where the blind man fell out his friends window and had to sue his friends to claim off the house insurance.
Deborah $127,000 for medical costs for a broken wrist in the US, sounds about right. Charge for trip to A+E is about $2,000 by itself. Then doctor’s fee X-ray, charge for cast or splint plus all the other charges. That’s just A+E. the article says nothing about how bad break was.
The other side of is the health system over there is corrupt and if you don’t have health insurance, your screwed, most ppl end up in debt after hospital treatment .
This kid shows more maturity as a 12 year old than the aunt in question.
It’s quite common here after a traffic accident involving life changing injuries for say a wife to sue a husband for damages to be paid by his insurance and vice versa..It’s not personal and the couple remain married.It’s to pay for any losses and pain and suffering caused.Probably similar to what happened in this case.Although the woman in the case above seemed to take inordinately long to take the case.
She should get the Cersi treatment from Game of Thrones. SHAME, SHAME, SHAME.
Jennifer Connell dropped the O for the soup I’d say
Saw this on Facebook and I really thought (and hoped) this was fake! What an absolute cow!
Still loves her =
The luck will turn on her…
* Still loves her = 13
WOW
This story is another numbers game with probably Zero truth in it..
“Disgrace” = 66
“a complete shock” = 11
accident happened on 18 March, 2011.> 13
“Negligence And Carelessness” = 239 Plutonium.
In other news ..”LAMOR ODOM” is a word for word anagram for “ALARM DOOM” .
Spelling Error : ”LAMAR ODOM” is a word for word anagram for “ALARM DOOM” .
How can an 8 year old break your wrist by jumping into your arms?
In fairness, neither of them resorted to guns in order to sort out their differences. It’s hard to love the ones you kill.
In the USA, real life is even more off the wall than the zaniest television drama.
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