Judge Rules 5-Year-Old Girl Can Be Sued for Bike Accident

She might have been too young for grade school, but a judge says a New York City girl was old enough to be sued over a bicycle accident that happened when she was 4.

A Manhattan judge refused earlier this month to toss out negligence claims against young Juliet Breitman. She, her mother and others are being sued by the estate of a woman who said she was severely hurt when hit by bicycles that Juliet and a boy were racing down a sidewalk in April 2009.

The woman, Claire Menagh, died later that year.

Juliet was three months shy of 5. The judge says there's no evidence a child of that age couldn't appreciate "the danger of riding a bicycle into an elderly woman."

Lawyers for everyone involved didn't immediately return calls for comment.

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