How far should a parents liability go in south Africa?

Question

I need the opinion of your average "man in the street" South African. A mother X asks another mother Z if Z's little girl of 8 A can come and play at X's house with her little girl B. A must bring her bicycle because B and A are going to cycle in the cul de sac in front of X's house. Z say yes but on one condition, A has to wear her cycling helmet at all costs. And X has to super vise the cycling at all times. As you know about 2 years ago new legislation came out: Cyclists have to wear SABS approved helmits at all times. So A and B are cycling in the street but x goes into the house after about 20 minutes of watching the kids. A boy of 6 Y comes with his bicycle, drive into A, she falls, break both her wrists, crack her lower mandible and loses all her top permanent teeth. Now Z wants to sue X because she did not supervise the cycling 100% as requested. Her medical bills for A is R180 000 so far, the child had to undergo major reconstructive surgery to her face, teeth etc. and Z has n

Answer 1

Do you mind if i just claim the two points? Sorry

*****

ok Lise - to cut a long story short. If i drop my kid off at a friends place and she hurt herself whilst under the supervision of a parent and with bot parents permission to do whatever they did, a reasonable parent would accept it as an accident. However, if you are a citizen of the US it is a different story, you will be sued for everything and anything.

Answer 2

I agree with Res, X accepted responsibility for A so she is liable.

However, I also wonder why the phone conversation was recorded. Did Z tell X she was being recorded? The fact that she recorded it suggests to me that she expected something to go wrong [EDIT: I'm not suggesting she expected her child to get hurt, just that there may be a reason that A needs extra watching]. Which in turn makes me wonder if perhaps Z didn't tell X everything she needed to know. Little girl A could be especially clumsy and prone to accidents for example, or she could have a naughty streak which requires her to be watched constantly or perhaps even ADHD (which could mean that she is prone to act before thinking, and is therefore prone to taking risks. This makes it hard for them to play with other children). The period of time the children were left alone is still inexcusable but I think that if any of these things are true then Z is partly to blame for being negligent for not telling X everything and for not having her child insured.  

Really interesting question. I’d be interested to know what your opinion is.

Answer 3

Me , personally , would see it as what it was , an accident...

Moral of the story....make sure you got Medical Aid...

Answer 4

A Mother can not invite another child over without taking full responsibility for the care of that child. And it is her duty to follow the stipulations set out by the invited child’s Mother. It is a downright disgrace that she left both the children unsupervised on the street for an HOUR. In my opinion it is just as bad as leaving children unsupervised in a swimming pool or at the beach. The nanny of boy Y saw that an adult was present and naturally assumed that the children were under supervision, and went about her daily chores. I would not necessarily blame her.

This is my moral opinion but I do not know if it carries any weight in court. I would sue X!

Answer 5

Well in my opinion you can't watch you kids 24/7 and kids will be kids. However, if you take on the responsibility of someones else child then you have to make sure you do everything to watch and protect them.

I've watched many programs on law and one I watched was very similar to this one and the mother was made to pay the bill.

Answer 6

It is just an accident. I feel sorry for both parties. I do not know.

Answer 7

The boy's parents should also held liable but the verbal agreement was broken and so X has to take responsibility for what happened.

Answer 8

You just brought back terrible memories of my Commercial Law 3 paper with all of those Z's and X's....

Difficult one, was X negligent is the question at hand, Yes, I think  she was (opinion) but convincing a court of law that not supervising children on bicycles at all times amounts to criminal negligence is going to take some effort or an exceptional attorney in my opinion.

Can cyclists not claim from the Road Accident Fund in such an event or must a motor vehicle be involved?

Answer 9

I would say that X is liable to some degree but Ys parents are also liable. Why were they not supervising their son?

Edit: X breached a verbal agreement with Z.

Edit: X is fully liable!