Neighbors to pay over boy’s death plunge
Print Edition
NEIGHBORS who left rubbish beneath a 10th floor corridor window have been ordered to compensate the family of a toddler who clambered onto the pile and fell from the window to his death.
The two neighbors as well as the property management company for the building in the Pudong New Area were told by the Pudong New Area Court to pay the child’s parents a sum of around 87,000 yuan (US$14,190).
The tragedy occurred on the night of October 17, 2012, when the 2-year-old’s mother, surnamed Fan, received a call for her husband to meet him at the gate of their residential complex.
Fan headed out, leaving her son, whose name was not released, at home with the door of the 10th floor apartment unlocked.
When the couple returned to their block, they found their son lying unconscious on the ground after falling from a window in the corridor. He died shortly afterward in hospital.
There are four households on the 10th floor and Fan said cardboard boxes and bottles were always left piled under the window near the elevator.
Fan said although she should bear some responsibility for her son’s death, neighbors were also responsible for leaving items there.
The building’s property management company was also liable for not clearing rubbish away, claimed Fan.
She demanded a total of 440,000 yuan (US$70,967).
The property management company argued that households should clear rubbish from the corridor themselves and said it posted notices asking residents not to leave garbage there.
Two neighbors living there at the time did not show up at court.
Police said boxes and other items were piled up to the window and that they found the toddler’s footprint on the windowsill.
The court said that while the boy’s parents should bear the main responsibility for the accident, the property management company had failed to clean public areas.
It was ordered to pay the family 17,000 yuan.
It also ruled that the neighbors — who forfeited their right to defend themselves by not showing up at court — must each pay around 35,000 yuan.
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