## Facts

- A neighborhood block party was held on a traffic-closed street in Bayonne, New Jersey, with multiple adults and children present and children riding bicycles.
- Five-year-old Michael Scalia rode a two-wheeled bicycle he had learned to ride about two months earlier.
- Michael’s father, Alphonse Scalia, was nearby and had undertaken responsibility to supervise Michael; Michael’s mother, Lisa Scalia, was inside preparing food.
- Sixteen-month-old Kathryn Buono stood in the street next to her mother, who was conversing and did not observe the collision.
- Alphonse saw a potential danger and shouted “watch out,” but Michael collided with Kathryn, causing facial injuries requiring stitches.
- Kathryn (through her guardian ad litem) and her father sued, alleging negligent supervision by Alphonse and Lisa; by the time of review, only Alphonse’s alleged negligent supervision remained at issue.

## Issues

1. Whether New Jersey’s parental-immunity doctrine bars a negligent-supervision claim brought by a third-party child (and her parent) against another child’s parent.
2. Whether the evidence could support a finding that the supervising parent’s conduct was willful or wanton, removing the claim from parental-immunity protection.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of New Jersey affirmed summary judgment for Alphonse Scalia.
- The court held parental immunity for negligent supervision extends to claims brought by third parties, not only to claims by the parent’s own child.
- The court held the undisputed facts showed, at most, ordinary negligence and could not support willful or wanton misconduct.
- Because the claim sounded in ordinary supervision judgment, it was barred as a matter of law.

## Legal Principles

- In New Jersey, parental immunity remains available for claims based on ordinary negligent supervision, but not for willful or wanton failure to supervise.
- The immunity turns on the character of the parental conduct (ordinary supervisory discretion versus willful or wanton misconduct), not on the plaintiff’s identity.
- Third-party plaintiffs cannot recover from a parent for ordinary negligent supervision of the parent’s minor child; liability requires proof sufficient to meet the willful-or-wanton standard.
- Summary judgment is proper where no rational factfinder could conclude the parent consciously disregarded a known, serious risk, and the claim challenges ordinary supervisory decisions.

## Conclusion

New Jersey’s limited parental-immunity doctrine bars third-party negligence claims attacking a parent’s ordinary supervision of a minor child, and the claim proceeds only if the evidence could support willful or wanton parental misconduct; on these facts, immunity applied and summary judgment for the parent was affirmed.


Buono v. Scalia, 843 A.2d 1120 (N.J. 2004)