dog bite injuries
Animal attacks or injuries. If a dog or other animal, without provocation, attacks, attempts to attack, or injures any person who is peaceably conducting himself or herself in any place where he or she may lawfully be, the owner of such dog or other animal is liable in civil damages to such person for the full amount of the injury proximately caused thereby.
Plaintiff must prove:
(1) injury caused by an animal owned by the defendants;
(2) lack of provocation;
(3) peaceable conduct of the person injured; and
(4) the presence of the injured person in a place where he has a legal right to be.
Provocation exists whenever any external stimulus has precipitated the attack or injury by an animal, i.e., whenever the animal's actions are not completely spontaneous. The "provocation" may be caused by anyone. Provocation includes pushing or kicking a dog which is recuperating from an injury, crossing into an area which a dog is protecting and remaining within the dog's reach while it is eating , stepping on a dog's tail while it is chewing on a bone and jumping on an animal's back
The landlord is jointly and severally liable as a joint tortfeasor, along with the dog owner, to the victim. The premises owner (“landlord’) is a joint tortfeasor along with the dog owners in the dog attack if the landlord condoned, acquiesced to, and ratified by silence the vicious dog’s running unleashed and unmuzzled in the premises on the date of the attack and for a long time prior to that day.
Landlord breaches its duty to exercise ordinary care to make sure that subject Premises are reasonably safe for the residents by allowing the unattended and unleashed dogs to roam the premises. A lessor can be liable for injuries sustained on the part of the premises within its control if the lessor retains control and ownership of part of the premises which became unsafe.
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