## Facts

- Sharon Bonte, approximately seven months pregnant, was struck by a car while crossing a street in Manchester, New Hampshire.
- She was taken to a hospital, and the next day her child, Stephanie Bonte, was delivered by emergency caesarean section.
- Stephanie was born with catastrophic brain damage, diagnosed with cerebral palsy, and was permanently disabled, requiring lifelong medical and supervisory care.
- Andre Bonte, Stephanie’s father, sued Sharon Bonte individually and as next friend of Stephanie, alleging Sharon negligently failed to use reasonable care in crossing the street and failed to use a designated crosswalk.
- Sharon Bonte moved to dismiss for failure to state a claim, asserting New Hampshire law did not recognize a child’s (or father’s) tort action against the mother for prenatal injuries.

## Issues

1. Whether a child born alive may maintain a tort action against her mother for the mother’s negligent conduct that allegedly caused prenatal injury.

## Decision

- The New Hampshire Supreme Court reversed the dismissal and remanded.
- The court held that a child born alive has a cognizable cause of action against her mother for the mother’s negligence that caused injury to the child while in utero.
- Applying the motion-to-dismiss standard, the court accepted the pleaded facts and reasonable inferences as true and concluded they stated a basis for legal relief.

## Legal Principles

- On review of a dismissal, courts assume the truth of the pleaded facts and all reasonable inferences, construed most favorably to the plaintiff; dismissal is improper if the alleged facts would support legal relief.
- Injuries sustained by a child in utero are distinct and independent from any injuries suffered by the mother.
- A child born alive may maintain a cause of action for injuries sustained while in utero.
- A child may sue a parent in tort for the parent’s negligence; parental status alone does not bar a negligence claim for prenatal injuries caused by the mother’s conduct during pregnancy.

## Conclusion

The court recognized that prenatal injuries to a child later born alive constitute an independent injury and that a mother is not categorically immune from her child’s negligence claim for prenatal harm; therefore, the complaint stated a claim and the case was remanded for further proceedings.


Bonte v. Bonte, 616 A.2d 464 (N.H. 1992)