Actions Against Parents for Torts of Children
Statutory Liability
Parents may be liable for the acts of their children under certain statutes. Some statutes apply only to intentional acts by children against property, while others apply to intentional and negligent acts against people and property. Parents generally will only be found liable under the statutes if they were in control of or legally responsible for the child at the time of the tort. Thus, the statutes will not apply if the child has been emancipated from the parents.
Direction, Consent, and Ratification
Parents may be liable for injuries caused by a child's tortious act if they direct or encourage the child to commit the act, consent to the act by not attempting to stop it, or ratify the act by accepting any benefits derived from it.
Dangerous Instrumentality
Liability may be imposed upon parents who negligently entrust a dangerous instrumentality to a child who is incapable of using it safely. A dangerous instrumentality is an object that may cause injury if the child uses it in a reasonably foreseeable manner. Some common examples of dangerous instrumentalities are weapons, automobiles, and explosives. If parents violate a statute that prohibits the child's possession of a dangerous instrumentality, they may be negligent per se.
Negligent Supervision
Parents generally have a duty to properly supervise their children and to prevent them from harming others. If their child does cause an injury, they may be liable if they knew or should have known that the child might intentionally or negligently cause an injury and if they had the opportunity to prevent such injury but failed to do so. Parents may not be found liable if they acted as reasonable parents under the circumstances.
Automobiles
In most situations involving accidents caused by children who negligently operate an automobile, the parents are not held liable. However, there are some exceptions. Parents may be found liable if the child was driving as the agent for the parents, if the parents negligently entrusted the automobile to the child with knowledge that the child was incompetent, inexperienced, or reckless, or if the parents assumed liability for the child's negligence or willful misconduct in the operation of an automobile by signing the child's application for his driver's license. In addition, parents may be liable under the "family purpose doctrine" if their child negligently causes injury with an automobile that was used for the convenience and pleasure of the family.
Liability Arising from Employment
Parents may be held liable if they employ their child in a family business and the child commits a tort while acting within the scope of his employment.