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Return to Home Page DOG
BITE LAW STRICT LIABILITY - DOG BITE STATUTE BITE: If a dog
"bites" you, the law is on your side. When a dog bites a
person, the dog owner is, with limited exceptions, automatically responsible to
pay for that person's injuries, losses, pain, suffering and other damages.
The “The
owner of any dog is liable for the damages suffered by any person who is bitten
by the dog while [the person is] in a public place or lawfully in a private
place, including the property of the owner of the dog, regardless of the former
viciousness of the dog or the owner’s knowledge of such viciousness. A
person is lawfully upon the private property of such owner within the meaning
of this section when he is on such property in the performance of any duty
imposed upon him by the laws of this state or by the laws or postal regulations
of the United States, or when he is on such property upon the invitation,
express or implied, of the owner.” Civil Code Section 3342(a) Under this law, a person
who owns a dog is legally responsible for the harm from a dog bite, no matter
how carefully they guard or restrain their dogs. This statute took away
the so-called "one free bite" rule. STRICT LIABILITY -
DANGEROUS PROPENSITIES INJURED BUT NO BITE:
If a dog attacks but does not bite a person, the the dog owner is, with
limited exceptions, automatically responsible to pay for injured persons but
only IF the owner knows or should have known about the dog's dangerous
tenancies. This law is commonly
used to prove liability when the dog did not "bite" the person but
injured the person by, for example, knocking a person over. This law is also
used in cases where a domestic animal other than a dog caused harm to a
person. “ Drake v. Dean (1993) 15Cal.App.4th 915, 921 "Any
propensity on the part of a domestic animal, which is likely to cause injury
...is a dangerous or vicious propensity..." Talizin v. "A
possessor of a domestic animal is liable (no matter how careful he or she was to
prevent the harm) if he or she "knows or has reason to know" of the
animal's "dangerous propensities abnormal to its class."
Restatement Second of Torts, Section 509. NEGLIGENCE This law is commonly
used to prove liability when the dog did not "bite" the person
or domestic animal other than a dog was involved. “[N]egligence
may be predicated on the characteristics of the animal which, although not
abnormal to its class, create a foreseeable risk of harm. As to those
characteristics, the owner has a duty to anticipate the harm and to exercise
ordinary care to prevent the harm.” Drake v. Dean (1993) 15 Cal.App.4th 915,929 DEFENSES Typical defenses that
the dog owner may are trespassing, comparative negligence and assumption of the
risk. Provoking the dog is a
commonly asserted defense but is, legally, difficult to establish. Return to Home Page |