Who should pay for broken statue?

[catherine]

Did you guys see this on the news? At some event at a community center a kid is running around--apparently unsupervised--and pulls down a $132,000 statue and breaks it.

Who should pay?

Insurance company? (After all, what's insurance for)?

Parents? (Make them accountable for not disciplining/watching their kids properly)

The community center? (Just sweep it up and stick it in the recycling bin--oh well, them's the breaks!)

OR.. should the PARENTS sue the CENTER for negligence--the statue was not property secured and could have harmed the kid when he yanked it down.

https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2018/06/17/child-topples-132k-statue-parents-left-to-pay-new-day-weekend.cnn

[herbgeek]

From the footage I saw on the news, the kid was hanging all over the statue while his mother was busy chatting with some other people on couches across the room (and not paying attention to what her kid was doing). I think the parents should pay /something/ but that most of this should come from insurance. The museum should have secured or roped off the statue as well.

So I vote for almost all of the above. :D

[CathyA]

Hmm.....that's a hard one. If this was "just" a community center, where all sorts of people (including kids) are running around, it seems the statue shouldn't have been situated there, or it should have been secured. It could have killed a child.
Did it actually break? Seems like alot to spend on a statue in a community center.
We have umbrella insurance for things like that.....but still........seems like the community center should shoulder the blame (and their insurance).
Were those his parents sitting on the couch in that area?

[iris lilies]

What happens in my neck of the woods is that the insurance company pays for it, and then may go after the parents if they think there is a chance the parents can cough it up.

We have regular damage to our neighborhood historic structures, usually by car, and if we can catch the driver our i surance company goes after him.

I cant imagine any damage incident at my former place of work, the library, that would hold children and their families responsible.

[Simplemind]

I think the parents have an equal responsibility in this. It takes a village but for God's sake make sure another responsible villager is watching your child before you turn your back. For their safety and the preservation of property that doesn't belong to you.

[pinkytoe]

I see a whole lot of unsupervised kids these days - one of my pet peeves. I imagine insurance would lowball payout so that parents have to pay remainder.

[Teacher Terry]

Parents should have been watching their kids. Seems like plenty of blame to go around with statue not secured.

[Williamsmith]

If I were an attorney, I would gladly represent the family. Here we have a mother with four children attending a wedding at a community center that boasts about its helping the neighborhood lead a healthier more balanced lifestyle. The facility is home to a fitness center, gymnasium, child care center and banquet facilities designed for meetings, private parties and gatherings of all ages. It is not a museum. So it would be reasonable to assume children would be naturally present on the premises on an almost constant basis and a reasonable person would not display a one of a kind glass sculpture that was on loan to the city in an unprotected precarious location and capable of shattering and decapitating a person or at least severing an artery. The city and Travelers insurance are going to look like nitwits.

[Tybee]

I just watched the video, and that child is lucky to be alive. What a terrible thing, to have that heavy glass sculpture up there not secured in any way. He is five years old. That was not installed in any safe way, and that is a public space. Someone older could have bumped into it, and ended up severely injured.

They had no business putting something up in that fashion, to fall on people, and why put up something worth over a hundred thousand dollars in a public space like that? Why wasn't there it secure, with something around it so no one could touch it?

I hope the parents do countersue.

[iris lilies]

I just watched the video, and that child is lucky to be alive. What a terrible thing, to have that heavy glass sculpture up there not secured in any way. He is five years old. That was not installed in any safe way, and that is a public space. Someone older could have bumped into it, and ended up severely injured.

They had no business putting something up in that fashion, to fall on people, and why put up something worth over a hundred thousand dollars in a public space like that? Why wasn't there it secure, with something around it so no one could touch it?

I hope the parents do countersue.

Remaining calm, I will ask how the parents of the evil spawn family was harmed.

[Yppej]

The parents should pay the deductible.

[bae]

Remaining calm, I will ask how the parents of the evil spawn family was harmed.

My understanding of tort law, based on studying for the bar exam in several states, indicates that perhaps their odds are low.

[Williamsmith]

My understanding of tort law, based on studying for the bar exam in several states, indicates that perhaps their odds are low.

I know at least one resourceful attorney who could not only gin up sympathy for the family (facing a restitution payment that could easily pay for an average college education) but disdain for an entity that would try to extort money for an incident that could have easily been avoided given some common sense. The first hurdle for the insurance company is showing what constituted the value of the sculpture other than than word of its creator as to the value he placed on it. It was just a hunk of composite glass. I once received a bill for the transportation of my son via air ambulance that was for $27,000. Until I got that straightened out.....it certainly caused me great stress.

[Gardenarian]

I call it an accident. I don't like assigning blame, especially to a child.
Insurance pays.

[Tybee]

Here is the sort of thing that could have easily happened in this situation:

http://abc7news.com/news/toddler-killed-after-statue-falls-on-him-at-fishermans-wharf-/104481/

Why did a public space, rented for events, have this statue up on a pedestal where it could fall on a child, or an adult for this matter?