Quick Summary: The legal duty to supervise, restrain and control a disabled adult child to prevent him from harming himself and others falls upon the group home, and not the parents, according to the court.

   During the course of her duties working at a group home, a registered nurse was assaulted by a twenty-seven-year-old mentally challenged man. She sued his parents for compensation for her personal injuries, alleging they were negligent for failing to have had him committed to a larger, more secure institution, better able to handle his alleged violent propensities. The New York Supreme Court threw out the nurse’s lawsuit.

   In most circumstances, parents are not liable for the wrongdoing of their adult children. If a parent assumes custody and care of a mentally-challenged adult child, the parent has the duty to supervise the adult child in a "reasonably prudent" manner, according to the court, and to control the child to prevent bodily harm to others.