New York Court Rules, Girl Can Sue for Injuries Before Birth

Christina Cole

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New York state appeals court has ruled a seven-year-old girl can file a lawsuit against the city of Brooklyn for injuries that she sustained while she was an unborn child. This is a landmark ruling that is an important decision regarding the rights of unborn children.

When Sarah was 14 weeks into the pregnancy, her Mother Esther, a teacher, was injured when a public toilet collapsed at the school which she worked at.

That accident, in January 1999, ruptured Esther's placenta and caused premature labor less than four months later.

The baby was born with mental and physical disabilities and her family contends they are the direct result of the injury and the premature birth they caused. The family is suing the city for $1 million in damages.

During the hearing on the suit, city attorneys claimed that Sarah didn't have the right to sue because she would have had to have been able to survive outside of her mother's womb in order for her to file suit and win an award.

The newspaper reported that Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Martin Solomon agreed in a September 2005 ruling, but the state appeals court overturned that decision.

The court handed down a strong ruling saying that any unborn child has the right to have a lawsuit filed on their behalf as long as injuries occurred after conception and the child was born alive