Dog and other pet owners and insurers in New York are now exposed to increased risk of liability in the wake of a Court of Appeal
s ruling that allows an injured party to bring an ordinary negligence claim against a domestic animal owner for the first time.
The New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, has ruled that domestic animal owners may be held liable for an injury
if they are deemed negligent for failing to exercise due care under the circumstances that caused their injury.
That’s a broader standard than the strict liability theory that has been in place for decades and holds that a dog owner could only be
held strictly liable if the owner knew or should have known the animal had “vicious propensities.”
Now plaintiffs alleging injury can pursue one or both theories of liability against an animal owner.
“A plaintiff who suffers an animal-induced injury therefore has a choice. If the owner knew or should have known the a
nimal had vicious propensities, the plaintiff may seek to hold them strictly liable. Or they can rely on rules of ordinary negligence and s
eek to prove that the defendant failed to exercise due care under the circumstances that caused their injury. Of course, a plaintiff mig
ht also assert both theories of liability, as Flanders chose to do,” the court explained.
Flanders refers to Reb
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ecca Flanders, a postal worker who while handing a package to a hom
eowner on an inside porch was attacked by the homeo
wners’s unrestrained 70 lb. dog. The dog bit her shoulder, causing an injury that required multiple surgeries and resulted in permanent scarring.
Flanders sued under the state’s traditional dog bite theory of strict liability that the owner knew or should have known about the
dog’s “propensity to do any act that might endanger the safety of the persons and property of others in a given situation.”
Flanders also sued under the theory of negligence, despite its precedent (Bard v Jahnke) set in 2006 that negligence did not apply in such circumstances. Flanders asked the court to overrule Bard and recognize negligence as an alternative to strict liability for injuries caused by domestic animals.