Normally, we expect that the court house doors are open to everyone. The courts are established to help us resolve disputes and to right wrongs. They don’t discriminate against people based on race, religion, gender or age. A recent Supreme Court decision proves that assumption wrong.
In the case, a pilot named Ostler was flying a private plane with several passengers. The plane crashed through pilot error and everyone in the plane was killed. One of the passengers had a girlfiend named Melissa Walker. At the time of the crash, the Walker did not know she was pregnant. Later she discovered she was pregnant and gave birth to a boy. DNA testing proved that the boy was the son of one of the passengers.
Through his guardian, the child filed a wrongful death lawsuit. He sought to recover money to help in his upbringing because his father had been killed. The boy filed the case when he was about four years old.
The trial court threw the case out because the case had not been filed on time. The Supreme Court agreed. So when was the case supposed to filed? The Supreme Court said it should have been filed before the boy was born. Only problem is that an unborn child cannot file a claim. The result is that the boy never had the right to file a claim for the wrongful death of his father. Legally, he was completely denied a right given to the other passengers. Why? Because of his age.