## Facts

- Four-year-old Joseph LaBier rode a bicycle while his mother, Nyla LaBier, visited a neighbor on a steep driveway in Sanford, Maine.
- Joseph rode repeatedly down the driveway; during one descent his feet slipped off the pedals, he lost control, and entered the street.
- Driver Monique Pelletier approached on the residential road at about 20–25 m.p.h.; she slowed after noticing children elsewhere, then began accelerating.
- Pelletier did not see Joseph despite an unobstructed view of the driveway; her car struck him about three-quarters of the way across the road.
- Joseph suffered a broken leg, a head injury, and other abrasions.
- Joseph’s father sued Pelletier for negligence on Joseph’s behalf; Pelletier asserted comparative fault by Joseph and negligent supervision by Nyla and filed a counterclaim for contribution against Nyla.

## Issues

1. In a negligence action brought on behalf of a minor child, may a parent’s negligent supervision be imputed to the child for comparative-fault purposes to reduce or bar the child’s recovery against a third-party tortfeasor?

## Decision

- The Maine Supreme Judicial Court vacated the defense judgment and remanded.
- The court held that negligent supervision by a parent may not be imputed to a child in determining the child’s comparative fault.
- The trial court erred by instructing the jury to combine Joseph’s and Nyla’s negligence when comparing fault to Pelletier and by allowing the verdict to bar recovery based on Nyla’s greater fault.

## Legal Principles

- Comparative fault must be based on each actor’s own negligence; a parent-child relationship alone does not justify vicarious attribution of negligence.
- A minor’s tort claim is independent; a parent’s negligent supervision cannot reduce or bar the child’s recovery against a third party absent a distinct legal basis for imputation (e.g., agency).
- Concerns that a negligent parent might indirectly benefit from a child’s recovery do not justify limiting the child’s claim; a defendant’s remedy is to pursue contribution or other direct claims against the negligent parent.

## Conclusion

The Law Court rejected imputed parental negligence in child-injury cases, holding that a parent’s negligent supervision cannot be attributed to the child to defeat or diminish the child’s recovery under Maine’s comparative-fault framework, and it remanded for further proceedings without such imputation.


LaBier v. Pelletier, 665 A.2d 1013 (Me. 1995)