Brooklyn, NY – A 7-year-old girl can sue the city for injuries she received when she was still in her mother’s womb, an appeals panel has ruled in an unprecedented decision.
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Sarah Elizabeth Leighton was only a 14-week-old fetus when a toilet at a Brooklyn public school collapsed, injuring her schoolteacher mom. The fall ruptured Esther Portalatin-Leighton’s placenta, and Sarah was born prematurely, less than four months later.
Her parents argue that Sarah’s learning disabilities and asthmatic symptoms are a direct result of her early birth, which was caused by the ruptured placenta.
The Leightons sued the city on behalf of their daughter and are seeking more than $1 million in damages. But city lawyers tried to get the case dismissed before trial by arguing that the child had to have been able to survive outside the womb at the time the injuries occurred in order for her to recover damages.
Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Martin Solomon agreed in a decision issued in September 2005.
But the appeals panel reversed Solomon, as long the child was born alive. [NY Daily News]