At What Age is a Parent No Longer Liable for a Child in New York?

Full question:

in nys at what age is a parent no longer liable for their childrens actions

• Category: Minors
• Subcategory: Age of Majority
• Date: 04/07/2025
• State: New York

Answer:

A minor is a person under the age of majority. The age of majority is the age at which a minor, in the eyes of the law, becomes an adult. This age is 18 in New York. There is a parental liability law in NY, but it applies to parents of a minor. There are legal theories, which apply to auto accidents, therefore a parent of a reckless child over the age of majority is advised against allowing the child to use the parent’s vehicle.

Liability in New York is imposed on parent when child willfully, maliciously, or unlawfully destroys property; liability imposed on parent when child, with intent to deprive an owner and/or custodian of property, or to appropriate the same to himself or herself or to a third person, knowingly enters or remains in a building and wrongfully takes, obtains or withholds property from the building in which the personal property is owned or maintained. Liability is also imposed on a parent when the child falsely reports an incident or places a false bomb.

Please see the following NY statute:

§ 3-112 Gen. Oblig. Liability of parents and legal guardians having custody
of an infant for certain damages caused by such infant.

1. The parent or legal guardian, other than the state, a local social
services department or a foster parent, of an infant over ten and less
than eighteen years of age, shall be liable to any public officer,
organization or authority, having by law the care and/or custody of any
public property of the state or of any political subdivision thereof, or
to any private individual or organization having by law the care, custody
and/or ownership of any private property, for damages caused by such
infant, where such infant has willfully, maliciously, or unlawfully
damaged, defaced or destroyed such public or private property, whether
real or personal, or, where such infant, with intent to deprive the owner
and/or custodian of such property or to appropriate the same to himself
or herself or to a third person, has knowingly entered or remained in a
building and has wrongfully taken, obtained or withheld such public or
private personal property from such building which personal property is
owned or maintained by the state or any political subdivision thereof or
which is owned or maintained by any individual, organization or
authority, or where such infant has falsely reported an incident or
placed a false bomb as defined in section 240.50, subdivision one or two
of section 240.55, section 240.60 or section 240.61 of the penal law.
Such public officer, organization or authority, or private individual or
organization, as the case may be, may bring an action for civil damages
in a court of competent jurisdiction for a judgment to recover such
damages from such parent or legal guardian other than the state or a
local social services department or a foster parent. For the purposes of
this subdivision, damages for falsely reporting an incident or placing a
false bomb shall mean the funds reasonably expended by a victim in
responding to such false report, as set forth in subdivision eleven of
section 60.27 of the penal law. In no event shall such damages portion of
a judgment authorized by this section, as described in this subdivision,
exceed the sum of five thousand dollars.

2. Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision one of this section,
prior to the entering of a judgment under this section in the sum total of
five hundred dollars or more, the court shall provide such parent or legal
guardian of such infant with an opportunity to make an application to the
court based upon such parent's or legal guardian's financial inability to
pay any portion or all of the amount of such sum total which is in excess
of five hundred dollars, and upon the return date of such application, or
any adjournment thereof, the court shall, in summary fashion, hear and
consider all evidence of financial hardship presented tending to establish
the inability of such parent or legal guardian to pay any or all of the
amount of the sum total in excess of five hundred dollars, and the court
shall render its decision as to such party's inability to make such payment
based upon a preponderance of the evidence presented. Upon a decision that
such party has established his or her inability to make such payment, the
court shall enter the judgment authorized by this section but in an amount
within the financial capacity of such parent or legal guardian, provided,
however, that since the original of the sum total exceeded five hundred
dollars, no such judgment shall be entered for an amount which is less than
five hundred dollars.

3. It shall be a defense to an action brought under this section that
restitution has been paid pursuant to section seven hundred fifty-eight-a
or 353.6 of the family court act, or paragraph (g) of subdivision two of
section 65.10 of the penal law. It shall also be a defense to an action
brought under this section that such infant had voluntarily and without
good cause abandoned the home of the parent or guardian and without good
cause refused to submit to the guidance and control of the parent or
guardian prior to and at the time of the occurrence of such damages or
destruction. In no event shall it be a defense that the parent or legal
guardian has exercised due diligent supervision over the activities of such
infant, provided, however, that in the interests of justice, the court may
consider mitigating circumstances that bear directly upon the actions of
the parent or legal guardian in supervising such unemancipated infant.

4. For the purposes of this section the following definitions shall
apply:

a. The terms "enters or remains unlawfully" and "building" shall have the
same meaning as ascribed to such terms in section 140.00 of the penal law.

b. "Public officer, organization or authority" shall include but not be
limited to: those having by law the care and custody of a municipal
district or corporation; those having by law the care and custody of the
public property of the state or of any agency, department, board, bureau,
commission, division, office, council, committee of the state, or of a
public benefit corporation or public authority; and the board of education
or trustees of any city, union free or common school district or the city
board of any New York City community school district.

c. "Private individual or organization" shall include, but not be limited
to: any individual, private or public corporation or partnership or sole
proprietorship, organized church, synagogue or temple, not-for-profit
organization or corporation, cemetery corporation, or, if such liability is
as a result of damage upon any cemetery plot or mausoleum, the next of kin
of a person upon whose gravesite such damage or destruction occurred.

(As amended by Laws 1999, ch. 207, § 3, eff. July 6, 1999.)