HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) \u2014 A woman who sued her 12-year-old nephew for $127,000 over injuries she received when he exuberantly greeted her at his birthday party four years ago was forced to go to court over her medical bills, her lawyers said Wednesday as backlash against her on social media sites poured in.<\/p>\n
A jury on Tuesday rejected Jennifer Connell\u2019s lawsuit, finding the boy was not liable for her injuries. She had said she broke her wrist when the Westport boy jumped into her arms at his 8th-birthday party, causing her to fall.<\/p>\n
Jainchill & Beckert, Connell\u2019s law firm, said her nephew\u2019s parents\u2019 insurance company offered her $1 over the fall, which occurred at their home. She had no choice but to sue to pay medical bills, they said, adding that she has had two surgeries and could face a third, her lawyers said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the start, this was a case … about one thing: Getting medical bills paid by homeowner\u2019s insurance,\u201d the law firm said Wednesday in an emailed statement. \u201cOur client was never looking for money from her nephew or his family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peter Kochenburger, an insurance law specialist at the University of Connecticut School of Law, said state law typically requires those claiming injury to sue the individual responsible.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Connecticut and most states, if you have a claim against someone for negligence, you sue that individual, not the insurance company,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Connell\u2019s lawsuit said her \u201cinjuries, losses and harms\u201d were caused by the negligence and carelessness of the youngster, who should have known his \u201cforceful greeting\u201d would have injured her. A six-member Superior Court jury found that the boy was not liable.<\/p>\n
Jainchill & Beckert said Connell, a 54-year-old human resources manager from New York City, is being attacked on social media and has \u201cbeen through enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Twitter, she has been vilified as a terrible aunt, the most hated woman in America and an awful human being.<\/p>\n
Many took aim in particular at her statement to jurors, reported by the Connecticut Post, that because of her injury she could not easily hold an hors d\u2019oeuvre plate at a recent party.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Follow Stephen Singer on Twitter at https:\/\/twitter.com\/SteveSinger10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) \u2014 A woman who sued her 12-year-old nephew for $127,000 over injuries she received when he exuberantly greeted her at his birthday party four years ago was forced to go to court over her medical bills, her lawyers said Wednesday as backlash against her on social media sites poured in. A jury […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-18938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18938\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18938"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=18938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}