Practice point: Plaintiff sought damages for injuries he allegedly sustained in an
attack by a dog being kept by the night watchman at a construction site.
Defendant, a general contractor, was constructing
buildings on two adjacent properties, and had hired the night watchman
and given him permission to keep the dog at the premises. The dog
apparently escaped from the premises, and it and another dog attacked
plaintiff on a public sidewalk near the site.
Defendant established prima facie
that it was unaware of the dog's vicious propensities, through its
owner's testimony that he had never received any complaints about the
dog and was not aware of any previous incidents involving the dog, and
that the dog appeared friendly and well trained when he observed it.
However, plaintiff raised an issue of fact through the testimony of a
nonparty witness that he had seen the dog bite an electrician working at
the construction site approximately one
month before the subject incident occurred and was present when
defendant's foreman called the owner and told him what had happened.
Student note: The owner or a party in control of premises may be held liable
for injuries resulting from a dog bite that occurred off the premises if
it had knowledge of the vicious propensities of the dog and had control
of the premises and the capability to remove or confine the animal.
Case: Hall v. United Founders, Ltd., NY Slip Op08530 (1st Dept. 2013).
Here is the decision.
Monday's issue: Statute of frauds.
