James R Foley
Attorney at Law
Phone – 256-536-2788
504 Cleveland Avenue NW
Huntsville, Alabama
35801
“No representation is made that the quality of the legal service to be performed is greater than the quality of legal services performed by other lawyers.”
The following article written by James Foley for the newsletter of the Greater Huntsville Humane Society is re-printed with their consent.
ANIMALS AND THE LAW
The Alabama Court of Civil Appeals rendered an interesting decision in December of 1998 in the case of Edgar v. Riley. In that case the father of a nine year old boy sued his neighbor for injuries which the boy suffered when bitten by his neighbor's pit bull dog.
The Rileys and Edgars were neighbors. Edgar's five year old pit bull bit Riley's son as he rode his bicycle into Edgars's yard. Surgery was required to repair the damage done to the boy's leg. Edgar testified that the dog had never before displayed any vicious propensities before the date of the attack. The dog had roamed free in the yard often, had been exposed to people before, but it had never tried to bite or attack anyone. A veterinarian testified at trial that pit bull dogs as a breed were unpredictable and could be aggressive and dangerous. They were bred to fight and tended to hold onto the object of their attack. The jury awarded monetary damages to the Rileys for the boy's injuries from the bite.
The Court of Civil Appeals upheld the jury verdict upon appeal, holding that there was evidence from which the jury could reasonably infer that the pit bull breed was unpredictable and could be dangerous and vicious.
The Court cited the case of Humphries y. Rice, in which the Alabama Supreme Court said in 1992 that the owner or keeper of an animal will be charged with knowledge of the propensities of the breed of animal he or she owns. When such propensities are of a nature likely to cause injury to another the animal's owner must exercise reasonable care to guard against and prevent such injuries which are reasonably to be anticipated.
The owner of a pit bull in Alabama is going to need to be careful to protect third parties from injury caused by the dog, regardless of whether or not the dog owner has knowledge of any particular vicious or dangerous propensities of the dog.