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If You Take Your 15-Year-Old Girlfriend to a Party Where She Has
If You Take Your 15-Year-Old Girlfriend to a Party Where She Has Sex and Then Commits Suicide, Are You Liable?
Fifteen-year-old Alexandra Brown committed suicide on February 21, 2007. Two nights before, she went to a party at an acquaintance’s apartment with a friend, 18-year-old Kayla. Both girls lied to their parents as to where they were going, saying they were going to sleep over with the other girl. Kayla picked up Alex and drove them both to the apartment.
The girls danced and drank alcohol provided by Kayla. At one point Kayla was concerned that some of the boys as the party might “take advantage” of Alex and stopped her from dancing inappropriately. The girls spent the night sharing a room with the 19-year-old. During the night Alex and the 19-year-old had sexual intercourse. Kayla was aware that the 19-year-old and Alex were intimate, but not that they were having sex.
Alex told another lie and got her stepfather’s permission to go out the next night. However, parental investigation uncovered the lie. Alex’s mother, Pamela, called her cell phone several times asking her to call back. She didn’t. Alex called several people during the night stating she had been caught by her parents and was in trouble. Distraught, in the morning, Alex hung herself from a tree in her backyard.
Pamela, as executor of Alex’s estate, sued Kayla claiming she was negligent in bringing Alex to the party, providing alcohol, and failing to prevent Alex from having intercourse with the 19-year-old. These failures led to Alex’s emotional distress and eventual suicide. The trial court dismissed the claim and Pamela appealed.
Pamela argued that sex between a 15-year-old and a 19-year-old, unless they are married, is statutory rape. Accordingly, Alex was legally incapable of giving consent. Kayla, being 18, was an adult who should have recognized the unreasonable risk of sexual assault at the party and taken steps either to prevent the assault or not taken Alex to the party. In short, she argued Kayla had a duty to keep Alex safe under the circumstances.
A unanimous Supreme Court dismissed Pamela’s claim. It reasoned that Kayla did not create the risk that Alex, who was responsible for her own behavior, would have sex. Nor was there any relationship between the two girls (like guardian and ward) that imposed any duty on Kayla to be responsible for Alex. There is simply no duty for an 18-year-old friend to care for a 15-year-old. The Court emphasized that Alex made her own choice that night, and that Kayla did not create the potentially dangerous situation. Nor could Kayla have foreseen that a sexual act would lead to suicide.
But the Court was not satisfied merely to rule that Kayla was not negligent. It emphasized that suicide is a voluntary, deliberate and intentional act. Accordingly, even if Kayla was negligent in bringing Alex to the party, the suicide was not caused by the negligence because it is not the normal outcome of negligent act.
It is easy to image the horror everyone involved in this sad case has gone through. Clearly Pamela was seeking solace by fixing blame on Kayla. The Court just as clearly ruled that suicide is not compensable when friends who own no legal duty to each other are involved. Pamela Lenoci, Adminstratrix v. Kayla Leonard 2011 Vt. 47
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