Grandmother Files Lawsuit After Suicide of 6-Year-old

 Negligence, Wrongful Death  Comments Off on Grandmother Files Lawsuit After Suicide of 6-Year-old
May 192016
 

There are personal injury cases that are based from the negligence doctrine. By nature, negligence will require everybody in a society to be responsible and avoid risking others. Although it doesn’t say that negligence results when somebody gets hurt, it is recognized in the doctrine that there are unavoidable accidents. To make the defendant liable, the plaintiff must provide evidence that the former would have done otherwise under the circumstances.

 

Cases of Negligence

Some examples related to negligence include medical complications due to carelessness of the physician, car mishaps due to drunk driving, and canine attacks when vicious animals are left out of the care of the owner. In such cases, the risks have been ignored by the responsible party which resulted to the injury of the plaintiff.

For this reason, the defendant is required to pay the plaintiff for the injury as a result of the actions done by the former. However, not all cases are the same since some damages can be calculated easily which can be linked to medical bills or property damage. For certain cases though that involve emotional distress or the loss of capacity to earn, it will require the testimony of an expert.

 

The Suicide Case of the 6-Year-Old

The case of the six-year-old female allegedly involved the failure of the child protection system at Hennepin County. Based from the statements of the grandmother Mary Broadus, it is only fair to claim damages resulting from the death of the victim Kendrea Johnson.

The suit stated that the county together with the foster providers as well as the mental treatment provider have knowledge about the suicidal tendencies of the child. Sadly, they weren’t able to take that issue seriously. As a result, they failed to work together to safeguard the young girl.

Failure of LifeSpan to Disclose Essential Information

LifeSpan is the agency taking care of Kendrea’s treatment for mental health and her schooling. They were fully aware of the behavior of the child. They allegedly have knowledge of how this girl was inclined to commit suicide based on their observations.

However, the lawyer of the defendants claimed that his clients weren’t guilty because of the lack of evidence that they were actually guilty. Thus, none of them did nothing wrong despite what happened to the victim. Additionally, he stated that the girl came from circumstances that were extremely difficult. In fact, the workers made sure that the child received the type of care she deserved.

The Foster Home

The child was placed in a foster home of a certain Tannise Nawaqavou at Brooklyn Park in 2014. Nawaqavou told the police that she was threatened by the girl with a screwdriver and even told her foster parent that she would jump out of the window to kill herself. Some pictures were also drawn by Kendrea depicting a child hanging from a rope, which supported the child’s suicidal tendencies.

Revocation of Licenses and Payment of Fine

The conclusion of the investigation of Kendrea’s death led to the revocation of licenses of Nawaqavou and her foster home. It was then found that although Nawaqavou wasn’t responsible for the child’s death, she was charged for locking the child in her room. An appeal was later filed but the DHS agreed with their request to keep operations after it will pay a fine of $600.

 

Reference

http://www.startribune.com/lawsuit-filed-after-death-of-6-year-old-foster-child/378815171/

 

 

 Posted by at 11:05 am