CHICAGO (Chicago Tribune BY STEVE SCHMADEKE) — Raised in a $1.5 million Barrington Hills, Ill., home by their attorney father, two grown children have spent the last two years pursuing a unique lawsuit against their mom for “bad mothering” that alleges damages caused when she failed to buy toys for one and sent another a birthday card he didn’t like.
The alleged offenses include failing to take her daughter to a car show, telling her then 7-year-old son to buckle his seat belt or she would contact police, “haggling” over the amount to spend on party dresses and calling her daughter at midnight to ask that she return home from celebrating homecoming.
Last week, at which point the court record stood about a foot tall, an Illinois appeals court dismissed the case, finding that none of the mother’s conduct was “extreme or outrageous.” To rule in favor of her children, the court found, “could potentially open the floodgates to subject family childrearing to … excessive judicial scrutiny and interference.”
In 2009, the children, represented by three attorneys including their father, Steven A. Miner, sued their mother, Kimberly Garrity. Steven II, now 23, and his sister Kathryn, now 20, sought more than $50,000 for “emotional distress.”
Miner and Garrity were married for a decade before she filed for divorce in 1995, records show.
Among the exhibits filed in the case is a birthday card Garrity sent her son, who in his lawsuit sought damages because the card was “inappropriate” and failed to include cash or a check. He also alleged she failed to send a card for years or, while he was in college, care packages.
On the front of the American Greetings card is a picture of tomatoes spread across a table that are indistinguishable except for one in the middle with craft-store googly eyes attached.
“Son I got you this Birthday card because it’s just like you … different from all the rest!” the card reads. On the inside Garrity wrote “Have a great day! Love & Hugs, Mom xoxoxo.”
In court papers, Garrity’s attorney Shelley Smith says the “litany of childish complaints and ingratitude” in the lawsuit is nothing more than an attempt by Garrity’s ex-husband to “seek the ultimate revenge” of having her children accuse her of “being an inadequate mother.”
“It would be laughable that these children of privilege would sue their mother for emotional distress, if the consequences were not so deadly serious for (Garrity),” Smith wrote. “There is no insurance for this claim, so (Garrity) must pay her legal fees, while (the children) have their father for free.”
Messages left for Smith were not returned. Steven A. Miner, reached by phone, did not comment. In court papers he said he only filed the lawsuit after much legal research and had tried to dissuade his children from bringing the case.
The Cook County judge who ruled on the case, Kathy Flanagan, declined to assess sanctions against Miner, but said the lawsuit amounted to nothing more than children “suing their mother for bad mothering.”
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I just wnt and told my mother that I should sue her for allowing us to walk to and from school in the rain and snow! And once we ahd a BAD snow storm and she worked late and I was locked out of the house!! SUE! lol
this is unbelievable….
They should take the FATHER’S LAW TICKET away and make the slimmy B—–D pay all the court cost. Then force both kids in the Marine Corps for a little REALITY CHECK on life !!!!!!!
The judge made only ONE mistake in my opinion: The Plaintiffs should have had to pick up the mom’s Attorney Fee for a Frivolous lawsuit. Better yet, if ANY lawsuit is considered to be frivolous (Court’s Opinion), whatever the Plaintiff’s were suing for should be reversed…..THEY should pay the mom $50,000 PLUS Attorney’s Fees. My guess: Mom would have not accepted the money….she appears to be level-headed. If THIS is a case of bad parenting, nearly everyone I grew up with should be in court. Good job, mom!!!! What a couple of ungrateful, wretched children.
Wow. Talk about spoiled brats. Sounds like to me she tried to set some boundaries and be a good mom. These guys are total brats. She should sue them for being ungrateful, nasty, self-centered jerks.
OMG!! My kids were really ‘abused’ since they had to drink milk with dinner, had TV shows monitored, had curfews, clean their rooms each week, etc. I also guess that my kids grew up in substandard housing since my home is waaaaaaaaaaay under the $1.5 million that these kids grew up in.
2 as….oles.
Ridiculous.
Daniel