A 54-year-old woman has sued her 12-year-old nephew for “negligence and carelessness” at his eighth birthday party.

Jennifer Connell appeared in a Connecticut courtroom last week, seeking $US127,000 ($A173,000) from her nephew, Sean Tarala, for an exuberant outburst in 2011.

Connell, a New York-based human resources manager, claimed Tarala had raced up to her and jumped into her arms when she arrived at the family’s home for his birthday party, knocking her to the ground.

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“All of a sudden he was there in the air, I had to catch him and we tumbled onto the ground,” Connell testified, Connecticut Post reported.

“I remember him shouting: ‘Auntie Jen, I love you’, and there he was flying at me.”

The fall broke Connell’s wrist, she claimed, but she did not raise the matter at the time as “it was his birthday party and I didn’t want to upset him”.

She told the court the incident had made some things “very difficult” in her life, including navigating her Manhattan “third-floor walk-up”.

It had also impacted her social life.

“I was at a party recently, and it was difficult to hold my hors d’oeuvre plate,” she said.

The 12-year-old sat in the courtroom with his father and “appeared confused”, according to Connecticut Post. His mother, Lisa, died last year.

Connell said the boy had always been “very loving, sensitive” towards her, but should be held liable for the injury.

A six-member Superior Court jury took just 25 minutes to deliberate over the matter, before unanimously ruling in favour of the young boy.