And finally…love will tear us apart

Jennifer Connell claimed the boy, Sean Tarala, acted unreasonably when he leaped into her arms as he told her he loved her, causing her to fall on the ground and break her wrist four years ago.

This week Connell asked a six-member Superior Court jury to find to find that the boy had acted “unreasonably” and was liable for his actions.

However, it took them just 20 minutes to dismiss her claim for $127,000 (£83,000) in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

In court the boy, now 12 years old and the only defendant in the case, and who Connelly herself described as always being “very loving” and “sensitive” toward her, appeared confused as he sat with his father.

The boy’s mother, Lisa Tarala, died last year.

On the witness stand, Connell, a 54-year-old human resources manager, testified that she loves Sean but claimed he should be held accountable for her injury.

On March 18, 2011, Connell, who has no children of her own, arrived at the Tarala home at 25 Woods Grove Road to attend Sean’s birthday party.

The boy had gotten his first two-wheeler for his birthday, and was joyfully riding the bright-red bike around and around the home, according to testimony.

But when he spotted Connell, he dropped the new bicycle on the ground, exclaiming, “Auntie Jen, Auntie Jen.”

“All of a sudden he was there in the air, I had to catch him and we tumbled onto the ground,” Connell testified of her encounter with the 50-pound boy. “I remember him shouting, ‘Auntie Jen I love you,’ and there he was flying at me.”

Although hurt, Connell said, she didn’t complain to the boy at the time.

“It was his birthday party and I didn’t want to upset him,” she told the jury.

But, Connell continued, her life was turned upside down as a result of the injury.

“I live in Manhattan in a third-floor walk-up so it has been very difficult,” she said. “And we all know how crowded it is in Manhattan.”

And then there is the damage the injury has done to Connell’s social life.

“I was at a party recently, and it was difficult to hold my hors d’oeuvre plate,” she said.

“The injuries, losses and harms to the plaintiff were caused by the negligence and carelessness of the minor defendant in that a reasonable eight years old under those circumstances would know or should have known that a forceful greeting such as the one delivered by the defendant to the plaintiff could cause the harms and losses suffered by the plaintiff,” the lawsuit claimed.

Nora Freeman Engstrom, a professor at Stanford Law School said: “The general rule is: As long as a child is not engaged in an adult activity (and hugging certainly does not qualify), a child must only exercise the care that a reasonable child of the child’s actual age, intelligence, and experience would exercise.”

A juror told the New York Daily news: “We just couldn’t find him, you know, liable for what happened.”