Dog (Bite) Days Of Summer, Part II: Home Inspector Bitten While Inspecting Home Can’t Sue Realtor

by: Peter J. Gallagher (@pjsgallagher) (LinkedIn)

Last week, I wrote about an exception to the strict liability normally imposed on dog owners under New Jersey's dog bite statute. (A short time before that, I wrote about yet another exception to strict liability under the dog bite statute, so the exceptions are obviously more interesting than the rule.) This post is about a different dog bite case, Ward v. Ochoa, with a similar result even though it was not decided under the dog bite statute. Ward involved a home inspector who was attacked and severely injured while performing a home inspection. She sued the dog owners (who eventually settled) along with the real estate agency and real estate agent who were selling the house. Like the dog groomer in last week's post, however, the home inspector's claims were dismissed.

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Dog (Bite) Days of Summer, Part I: Owners Usually, But Not Always, Strictly Liable For Dog Bites

by: Peter J. Gallagher (@pjsgallagher) (LinkedIn)

As dog owners in New Jersey know, or should know, they are usually strictly liable for injuries suffered by anyone bitten by their dogs. New Jersey does not follow a "one free bite rule." Instead, under New Jersey law: "The owner of any dog which shall bite a person while such person is on or in a public place, or lawfully on or in a private place, including the property of the owner of the dog, shall be liable for such damages as may be suffered by the person bitten, regardless of the former viciousness of such dog or the owner's knowledge of such viciousness."

There are, however, exceptions to this rule. For example, trespassers, who are obviously not "lawfully on or in a private place," cannot sue under the dog bite statute. A different exception was at play in Carpentiero v. Pocknett, where a dog groomer was bitten in the face by a dog while bathing the dog. In that case, defendant brought her dog to Katie's Pet Depot, where plaintiff, an independent contractor, worked as a part-time pet groomer. Plaintiff testified that had she been advised that the dog was old and had arthritis, she would have "muzzled the dog prior to grooming." But she was never told that, therefore she did not muzzle the dog, and, while she was bathing the dog, she was bitten in the face.

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“Does Your Dog Bite?” What, If Any, Duty Does A Dog Owner Owe To A Trespasser?

by: Peter J. Gallagher (@pjsgallagher)

I loved the Pink Panther movies, and one of the more memorable scenes in the series involved Inspector Clouseau trying to pet an innkeeper's dog (or, more accurately, a dog that he thought belonged to the innkeeper:

Other than the fact that both involve a dog bite, this clip does not have much to do with the recent Appellate Division opinion in Ahrens v. Rogowski, but it is a funny clip and worth sharing.

In Ahrens, the Appellate Division was presented with the less humorous case of a woman who was bitten by a dog when "trespassing" on the dog owner's property. I put "trespassing" in quotes because, when I think of trespassing, I think of someone sneaking onto property late at night with nefarious motives, and that is not what happened in Ahrens. Nonetheless, plaintiff was trespassing in the legal sense when she was bitten by the property owner's dog and the Appellate Division was faced with what duty, if any, the owner owed her as a result.

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