8 year old boy sues parents over car seat

On one side is an 8-year-old boy, grievously injured five years ago in a traffic accident. On the other are his parents, who have been sued by the boy in the hopes of forcing the family's insurance company to pay off a $100,000 policy.

The lawsuit reached the Minnesota Supreme Court this week, and the court's ruling, expected later this year, could ultimately have a ripple effect on anyone in the state who straps a child into a car seat

The mother was driving the family's car in April 2001 when it was hit by another car and rolled over repeatedly. Although the boy was belted into his car seat, he was released from his safety seat, ejected from the vehicle, and injured.

State Patrol investigators found that a coin, dirt and other debris made it sound as if the car seat closure had clicked closed, even when it hadn't. The seat belt anchoring the car seat also gave way.

The family sued the Century Products Co., manufacturer of the seat, settling the case confidentially before a trial was to begin.

The case turns on how the high court interprets Minnesota's so-called gag rule, which bars evidence about the use of seat belts and child seats in personal-injury lawsuits. That law was amended to allow evidence that involves a defectively designed, manufactured, installed, or operating child passenger restraint system.

Both the District Court and the Appeals Court agreed that the exception to the state's gag law applied to this case.