A particularly strange lawsuit is taking place in a New York court where a woman is suing her own nephew.

The incident dates back a number of years to the boy's eighth birthday party, where his reaction to seeing his aunt arrive at the party was a bit too exuberant and caused her an injury. 

According to the Westport News, the case is based on the claim that the boy "acted unreasonable when he leaped into her arms, causing her to fall on the ground and break her wrist". 

The suit states that the losses and injuries were a result of "negligence and carelessness of the minor defendant in that a reasonable eight years old under those circumstances would know or should have known that a forceful greeting such as the one delivered by the defendant to the plaintiff" would have those consequences. 

Testifying in the case, Jennifer Cornell said that she had always found her nephew to be "very loving, sensitive" and that she didn't complain when the incident took place as she didn't want to upset him at his birthday party.

She added that the injury had made her life very difficult in the time since, in particular because of the fact that Manhattan is so crowded, and adding that her social life has suffered: "I was at a party recently, and it was difficult to hold my hors d’oeuvre plate". 

While that all seems very strange, it's not uncommon for these type of cases to be taken against family members and friends in order to get insurance companies to make a payment on a claim, so this may be what's happening here.  

Via Westport News, The Guardian