A 9-year-old boy in Canada sued a 12-year-old boy after a fight over a toy dinosaur.
Elijah Dominic Robinson, now 13, filed suit in the Alberta Court of Justice against Xavier Fellin, now 16, due to the dino dispute that allegedly turned bloody on Aug. 9, 2022, at a daycare in Grande Prairie, court records filed Jan. 2 revealed.
But Judge Brian Robert Hougestol dismissed the suit, questioning some of the legal issues raised.
“Reasonable people expect the possibility of children having minor disagreements and minor altercations. Children in these situations are within the expected scope of risk of injury, especially a difficult to foresee risk,” the judge wrote.
On that fateful day, the boys were both attempting to play with the same dinosaur toy which resulted in a “swatting match.”
Neither boy could recall details about the toy, according to the records.
During the tussle, Fellin allegedly swung the prehistoric recreation at Robinson, which the suit claimed caused a “serious dislocation fracture” to his ring finger which required surgery.
However, Robinson did not provide the court with medical records that substantiated the claims of physical injuries.
The judge noted that “the finger was essentially severed at the bone but still attached. The injury required surgery or the finger would apparently have been lost.”
The children were listed as the parties in the case, though Fellin’s parents were later added as defendants though there is no indication they did anything wrong, records stated.
Robinson’s mother, on the contrary, “seemed fixated on the Defendant’s parents lack of attention or contact” — outraged that the Fellin’s did not reach out to her after the 2022 altercation, the judge said.
“While contact from the Defendant’s parents might have been polite and courteous, they were under no legal obligation to make contact,” Judge Hougestol wrote in his decision.
The case had sought $10,000 in general damages plus out-of-pocket expenses.
