A mother and her teenage son in North Carolina have been permitted to sue after he was allegedly given a Covid-19 vaccine without consent.
The state Supreme Court’s ruling on Friday reversed a lower court’s decision that said federal health emergency laws ruled out such legal action, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
Now, Emily Happel and her son, Tanner Smith, can sue the public school system and a doctor’s group involved in the case.
The lawsuit alleges that in August of 2021, he was given the shot at a testing and vaccination clinic set up at a Guilford County high school. The AP report continued:
Smith went to the clinic to be tested for COVID-19 after a cluster of cases occurred among his school’s football team. He did not expect the clinic would be providing vaccines as well, according to the litigation. Smith told workers he didn’t want a vaccination, and he lacked a signed parental consent form to get one. When the clinic was unable to reach his mother, a worker instructed another to “give it to him anyway,” Happel and Smith allege in legal briefs.
Happel and Smith sued the Guilford County Board of Education and an organization of physicians who helped operate the school clinic, alleging claims of battery and that their constitutional rights were violated.
In 2022, the family retained the legal counsel of attorney Steven Walker of Walker Kiger, PLLC, the North State Journal reported at the time.
According to a press release, Old North State Medical Society was accused of illegally vaccinating the teenager without his or his mother’s consent. In comments regarding the case, Walker said: