Wash. Judge Orders $129K in Damages for Boy Injured By Tree

A southwest Washington school district has been ordered to pay more than $129,000 in damages to the family of a teenage boy who suffered a skull fracture when he was hit by a falling tree at a school in 2009.

The Columbian newspaper says Clark County Superior Court Judge Diane Woolardordered Battle Ground Public Schools to pay $55,000 in economic damages and $55,000 in noneconomic damages to Christine and Joshua Letts. She also awarded about $18,000 to cover legal costs and wages lost while they cared for their son, Trae Letts.

The family lawyer says the boy was swinging from a rope attached to a tree limb at Yacolt Primary School when he was hurt. William Baumgartner says other kids were pushing on the tree when the trunk snapped and fell on the boy, then 13.