This decision is disconcerting and in my opinion sets a bad precedent. The ruling is antithetical to the spirit of the constitution and jurisprudence. What is a parent to do with a rebellious kid? Kill him or her? Lock the rebellious children in the dungeon in the hope that it will deter them from mischief or future potential criminality? Does this sound reprehensible? Absurd? Perhaps because it is. This is no less what this odious ruling implies. The parents from now on are obligated to prevent bad or reckless behavior by any means necessary from a child hell bent on acting up and being destructive or face civil legal action for now or maybe even criminal in the future. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Note: For the record my youngest is 18 almost 19 hence I'm not trying to abrogate my parental responsibility as this ruling doesn't affect me. However this is egregious for any parent or at least it should be.
I think the main focus should be on the following words "
The ruling SCJ-SS-22-0038 dated 31 January 2022 establishes that the parents have civilian responsibility for the damages of their minor children
when the fault can be attributed to a lack of watch over their offspring on their part."
Because I can agree that it can be very difficult to exert total control over a 15yrs+ old or what they are doing ALL the time. I mean I was once young and did some stupid sh**, that I (hope) my parents never found out.
But sadly there are so many parents that just show they don't care. "Where's your son/daughter?" "uhhhh, don't know... out".
And on a personal level, although my oldest son is "only" 13yrs, I've already told him, that while he lives under my roof, he's NOT gonna have a bike. And if I would see him with one, I would either return it to its owner or the store where it was bought or sell it myself.
So even though you cannot control every little thing they do, you could still do so many things to prevent it.
If you know they are known troublemakers, there are still things you can do to at least try to avoid so they don't crimes.
And even if they do crime, if you can show that you have done
EVERYTHING in
YOUR power to prevent that, then I don't see why you should be accountable for your offspring. But if you just passively just watch how your kid is doing stupid thing after stupid thing, heck yeah you should be accountable.
Just as I feel that if you have a teenage daughter that you knowingly send off to be with an older man, that then later have physically abused her or even killed her, the parents should also be held accountable for that.
