Reversing a lower court, the state Supreme Court ruled 4-2 Wednesday that the parents of a 10-year-old girl assaulted while selling candy for the Punxsutawney Area School District can sue the companies involved in the fund-raiser.

Lawyers on both sides of the case said the decision was likely to have a chilling effect on the wide range of for-profit businesses that help schools and other organizations raise money by sending children door to door.

A lawsuit against the school district was previously dismissed in federal court.

Attorney David Long, who represents the plaintiffs, said school districts "are begging for a lawsuit" if they continue to use such methods to raise funds.

Attorney David White, who represents Giftco Inc., of Illinois, which provided items that were sold, said, "It certainly is a dangerous precedent for school districts to host fund-raising activities such as this."

The high court didn't decide the merits of the case; that will be the job of Indiana County Common Pleas Court.

But the high court did rule that the case shouldn't have been dismissed on preliminary objections, agreeing with the parents that the fund-raising companies should have known of the dangers and that the prizes and parties offered as incentives heightened those dangers. It also said the organizations failed to warn parents or students.

"Whether these facts will survive discovery and motions for summary judgment, and, if so, whether parents can meet their burden before a jury and obtain recovery is for another day. It was, however, error to dismiss this case on preliminary objections," Justice Max Baer wrote in the majority opinion.

Mr. White believes Giftco will win in the next round -- a motion for summary judgment -- because it was a supplier and did not devise the incentive program or present it at the school.

The attorneys for the others who were sued -- Scott Manzek and 84 Services, a Pennsylvania company, and Cookbook Publishers Inc. of Kansas -- could not be reached yesterday.

In 2002, the girl's parents and brother were killed in a fire at their Indiana County home. The girl escaped, and another sibling, who was not home at the time, also survived. Mr. Long said the lawsuit will be continued by her legal guardian.

The incident that led to the lawsuit took place in 1999 after the then-10-year-old girl and other students at Banks-Canoe Elementary School went to a fund-raising meeting at school at which Frank Manzek -- Scott Manzek's father and an employee of his company, 84 Services -- presented information, described prizes and gave away free gel pens to generate enthusiasm. He also gave students materials prepared by Cookbook and Giftco. Neither he nor the materials warned of any dangers.

The girl wanted to win a green inflatable chair, which required at least 50 sales. Her parents told her not to enter any stranger's house, but, with only four sales left to meet her goal, she saw a man, Timothy Fleming, mowing a yard and decided to stop and try to make a sale while she was en route to sell something to a friend's mother.

The girl ended up going into the man's home where she was violently assaulted physically and sexually.

Mr. Fleming pleaded guilty to attempted criminal homicide and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and was sentenced to 7 1/2 to 15 years in jail.

Mr. Long said some of the big prize goals can be impossible for children to meet without going beyond friends and family.

He said, "When you offer [children] prizes and things like that, it doesn't matter what their parents tell them about going to strangers. You're undermining what the parents have said. You've really increased the likelihood the kids are going to get hurt."

Mr. White said he was disappointed by the ruling.

"We've been arguing all along we don't believe there is any duty on the part of my client to warn the general public about the evils of some criminal act that could possibly cause some intentional harm to students," he said.

"To us, it's quite obvious this is such a heinous act that was committed by Mr. Fleming. We believe he and he alone is the one responsible for the tragic harm that was inflicted upon this young girl."

In a dissenting opinion, Chief Justice Ralph Cappy wrote that he believes the girl's side ultimately won't prevail. He said that the fund-raising entities did not need to warn that there "exist in the world evil people who could possibly cause intentional harm to minor students."