Source: https://www.robertslaw.org/death-of-my-pet-dog-or-cat/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 03:54:03+00:00

Document:
Question: Somebody injured or killed by dog or cat, what are the damages a court will award?
Damages for such losses are confined to the diminution in the value of the property …, plus reasonable and necessary expenses incurred. White Consolidated Industry v. Swiney, 237 Va. 23, 30, 376 S.E.2d 283, 287, 5 Va. Law Rep. 1364 (1989). The owner is not entitled to recover damages for the loss of companionship or the emotional loss to the owner.
That section also provides the remedy for the injury of such an animal by allowing the owner “to recover the value thereof or the damage done thereto in an appropriate action at law. . . .” Our decisions have never approved an award of damages for emotional distress resulting from negligently inflicted injury to personal property, and the General Assembly, having had such an opportunity when considering Code § [3.2-6575], evidently declined to do so. We conclude that permitting such an award would amount to a sweeping change in the law of damages, a subject properly left to legislative consideration. It follows that the defendants’ Instruction T correctly stated the existing law and that the trial court erred in refusing it.
Footnote 1: Most jurisdictions deny recovery of damages for emotional distress arising from injury or death of animals caused by ordinary negligence on the ground that animals are, at common law, and sometimes by statute, deemed personal property. See, e.g. Mitchell v. Heinrichs, 27 P.3d 309 (Alaska 2001); Roman v. Carroll, 621 P.2d 307 (Ariz. Ct. App. 1980); Pantelopoulos v. Pantelopoulos, 869 A.2d 280 (Conn. Super. Ct. 2005); Nichols v. Sukaro Kennels, 555 N.W.2d 689 (Iowa 1996); Krasnecky v. Meffen, 777 N.E.2d 1286 (Mass. App. Ct. 2002); Koester v. VCA Animal Hospital, 624 N.W.2d 209 (Mich. Ct. App. 2000); Fackler v. Genetzky, 595 N.W.2d 884 (Neb. 1999); Harabes v. Barkery, Inc., 791 A.2d 1142 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. 2001); Fowler v. Town of Ticonderoga, 516 N.Y.S.2d 368 (N.Y. App. Div. 1987); Strawser v. Wright, 610 N.E.2d 610 (Ohio Ct. App. 1992); Daughen v. Fox, 539 A.2d 858 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1988); Miller v. Peraino, 626 A.2d 637 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1993); Petco Animal Supplies, Inc. v. Schuster, 144 S.W.3d 554 (Tex. App. 2004); Pickford v. Maison, 98 P.3d 1232 (Wash. Ct. App. 2004); Julian v. De Vincent, 184 S.E.2d 535 (W. Va. 1971); Rabideau v. City of Racine, 627 N.W.2d 795 (Wis. 2001). But see Campbell v. Animal Quarantine Station, 632 P.2d 1066 (Haw. 1981). Some jurisdictions expressly permit recovery of damages for emotional distress in cases of animals injured or killed by willful, intentional, or outrageous torts. See, e.g., La Porte v. Associated Independents, Inc., 163 So.2d 267 (Fla. 1964); Gill v. Brown, 695 P.2d 1276 (Idaho Ct. App. 1985); Burgess v. Taylor, 44 S.W.3d 806 (Ky. Ct. App. 2001); Brown v. Crocker, 139 So.2d 779 (La. Ct. App. 1962).

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