Court Opinion

ID: 9681015
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:42:31.159395+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:31.841197
License: Public Domain

Darrell Hickman, Justice, dissenting. The facts and the law are equally significant in this case. Only an in-depth examination of both will reveal whether we have arrived at the right decision. The appellee, Mrs. Haskins, was bitten by a dog at the rural residence of the appellant, Ron Hamby. She and her sister were in the vicinity of the appellant’s farm looking for a yard sale. They stopped at the appellant’s house to seek directions. They saw no vehicles nor anyone about the place. The appellee went to the door and, as she was returning to her vehicle, she said a “black and white dog” about the size of a collie bit her. They reported the matter to the local police in Hackett. The sister, two police officers, and the employer of the appellee’s sister, returned to the appellant’s house. Apparently both officers got out, saw a dog which growled and snarled at them, and then one of the officers “maced” the animal. The appellant was told of the incident and he put the animal up for the required number of days. Although the appellee sought medical treatment, gangrene set in and she suffered real injury. Later, the son of the appellant said he shot the dog because it was limping and he thought it had been struck by a vehicle. The legal duty of an owner of a domestic animal is fairly well established. The owner has a duty to the public to either pen up that animal or warn the public of its presence. But there is no such duty unless an owner knows or clearly should have known the animal is vicious. Bradley v. Hendricks, 251 Ark. 733, 474 S.W. 2d 677 (1972). Of course the animal’s location at the time of the injury is significant. In every case that we have decided, the animal has either been off the premises of the owner or in a public place. Furthermore, in every case we have decided, the evidence was substantial that the owner knew or clearly should have known the animal was vicious or had a propensity to harm people. In Holt v. Leslie, 116 Ark. 433, 173 S.W. 191 (1915), the Missouri & North Arkansas Railroad was sued when a bull dog bit the plaintiff. The dog had been shipped to Leslie, Arkansas from Missouri. It arrived in a crate, chained. The crate was marked, “Be careful. Hands off.” There was an abundance of other credible evidence that the station master knew the dog was dangerous. Even so, he removed the dog from its crate and allowed his son to walk it about the station. (Evidently the man to whom the dog was shipped did not want it and delayed acceptance.) We upheld a verdict against the railroad and recognized the general doctrine regarding the liability of owners of domestic animals: If one knowingly keeps a vicious or dangerous animal, one accustomed to bite mankind, he is liable for injuries done by such animal, without proof of negligence as to the manner in which the animal was kept or handled. The mere keeping of such an animal, knowing its vicious and dangerous qualities, is at the risk of the owner (except as to trespassers) and renders him liable in damages to one injured by such animal. [Emphasis added.] The Holt decision is significant for several reasons: (1) It was at a public place, a railroad depot; and, (2) The agent had direct knowledge the animal was dangerous before it bit the plaintiff. In Field v. Viraldo, 141 Ark. 32, 216 S.W. 8 (1919), we dealt with a vicious bull. It attacked the appellee one night at her home immediately in front of her house. There was considerable evidence the bull had violent propensities when loose, as it had been on two prior occasions. We held the rule to be: . . . that the owner is liable for a trespassing animal whether he knows of the vicious propensities or not, and is liable for injuries inflicted by a vicious animal, not trespassing, only in case of knowledge on the part of the owner of such propensities of the animal. The liability in one case rests on the fact that the animal is trespassing, and in the other on the known vicious propensities of the animal, the law placing on the owner the duty of restraining the animal of known vicious propensities. . . . [Emphasis added.] McIntyre v. Prater, 189 Ark. 596, 74 S.W. 2d 639 (1934) is another vicious bull case. This bull attacked the plaintiff while she was in her yard picking up wood. It had broken out of its pasture. The plaintiff testified that the owner of the bull told her, “ ... the bull was vicious; and that it had been necessary to remove the bull from the farm operated by his brother to prevent the animal from injuring the children.” Needless to.say, we reversed a verdict in favor of the owner of the bull, holding it was for the jury to decide whether the owner knew the animal was vicious. In Bradley v. Hendricks, supra, we considered a case of a dog biting a child. The incident occurred in the City of Morrilton, at the house next door to the child’s residence. It did not occur at the residence of the owner of the dog. In Bradley, for the first time, we stated that an owner of a domestic animal could be held liable because the owner “should have known of such tendencies or propensities.” But we were careful in applying that statement. We prefaced our decision in Bradley with the statement that “ . . . The evidence in this case presents a close and difficult question” on substantial evidence. The evidence the dog had vicious propensities came from three witnesses. A Mr. Hendricks said the dog growled at him on more than one occasion as he went to work, and growled at his daughter and nipped at her heels when she passed in front of the owner’s house. Two other witnesses said the dog had growled at them. We found this to be substantial evidence. In Strange v. Stovall, 261 Ark. 53, 546 S. W. 2d 421 (1977), a child was bitten by a dog known to be vicious. The incident occurred at the child’s grandparents’ home. The dog belonged to relatives visiting the grandparents. The owner admitted to two witnesses the animal was mean and had bitten him several times. How does this case square with our prior decisions? The most obvious difference, of course, is the fact that in this case the appellee was a trespasser. And the incident occurred at the owner’s residence, a rural farm. Equally important, there is no evidence at all the owner knew the dog was vicious before this incident. The owner in this case had a right to keep a dog at his farm and a right to expect people not to trespass. The appellee was an admitted trespasser on his property and the only duty owed her was not to injure her by a willful and wanton act. Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. v. Davis, 247 Ark. 381, 445 S.W. 2d 505 (1969). That legal relationship places the appellee in a position of having to meet a heavy burden of proof, much heavier than that of one who is an invitee, as was the case of the bull dog at the railroad depot, or, in every other case cited, where the incident occurred off the premises of the owner. The jury was instructed in this case that the appellee was a trespasser and that the owner of the property owed the trespasser no duty until he knew of the presence of the trespasser on his property. And, most significantly, the jury was instructed, “An owner or person having custody of a domestic animal which he knows has a tendency to injure other persons keeps custody of that animal at his own risk and is liable for inj ury and damage caused by the animal. If, however, the damage occurs upon the defendant’s premises and plaintiff is a trespasser, then the owner or keeper of the dog is only liable for injuries if he acted with willful and wanton misconduct which was the proximate cause of plaintiff’s injury.” Of course if the owner in this case knew the dog was vicious, or even if he clearly should have known the dog was vicious, he should have either penned up the animal or posted a warning. But where is the substantial evidence the owner knew or should have known that in this case? And there is no evidence he knew of the presence of the trespasser. The majority recites three facts to support its conclusions. I submit that two of them cannot stand examination and the third, while more credible, cannot alone support a verdict. The first fact cited is the bare statement the owner knew the dog had been penned up by its prior owner. The majority implies that the owner knew the dog had been penned up by its owner because it was vicious or had vicious propensities. I respectfully suggest the majority has inaccurately characterized the evidence. Only the record can settle my disagreement with the majority opinion. The son of the appellant got this dog from a neighbor farmer about two weeks before the incident. The son had been with the dog when he fed the livestock of the neighbor who was absent from time to time. The son testified: Q. He kept the dog penned up there did he not? A. I let it run out some, but when I wasn’t there I penned it up. Q. Did Hardwick [the previous owner] keep the dog penned up or tied up? A. No, Don didn’t tie him — just when nobody was there. There is no evidence that the son knew the dog was vicious before it was given to him or knew it had been penned up because it was vicious. The second fact’s import eludes me entirely. The majority finds that since the owner penned up the dog, for the required number of days after the biting, and then let the dog loose, that is evidence the owner knew the dog was vicious. How this bears on the issue that the owner should have known the dog would bite before it did, escapes me. If anything, it simply shows the owner did not consider the dog vicious at all. In fact the owner in this case seriously questioned whether his dog actually bit the appellee. Evidence was offered that a German shepherd ran loose in the neighborhood which was known to have violent propensities. The third fact used by the majority is the incident with the two policemen, which occurred after the appellee was bitten. Neither the appellant nor his son was there. The two policemen got out of their vehicle and when the dog snarled and growled at them, they “maced” it. The relevant testimony from the officer reads: Q. You said Mr. Miner [a policeman] used mace on him? A. Yes. Q. Did he attempt to bite Miner? A. We were under the impression he was going to bite. Like I say, he showed his teeth and snarled at Miner and all of this. He was kind of a strange looking dog. He just stood there and looked at you eye to eye. He just stood there and looked at you when you turned your back on him. He was on the offensive. Q. When you turned your back on him he would then get offensive? A. Yes, sir. That was the situation we got in to. When Miner first got out and he was standing there looking at him, he was expecting the dog to do something and he didn’t; he just stood there and looked at him. And when he started to turn around and turned his back it was when the dog started snarling and growling. Of course at that time, he just unloaded the mace on him. Q. When he turned his back on him, did the dog approach him from the back? A. It seems like he did. A. Refreshing my memory from the report, the dog did attempt to bite both of the officers while we were there. Q. Did you do anything to provoke the dog? A. No, sir. Q. When you had this impression that you testified about, you had the impression that the dog was going to bite, was that before or after Officer Miner sprayed him with mace? A. At that point Officer Miner’s weapons were still in the holster and so were mine. Viewing the testimony of the officers favorably, as we must, they were afraid the dog was going to bite them, but I cannot concede that the evidence was conclusive the dog “attempted to bite” both officers. There was no evidence offered which showed this particular dog had violent propensities; that anyone knew the dog was vicious; or that anyone knew at any time, any place, or anywhere, that this particular dog had ever growled at, snarled at, or bitten anyone before this incident. And that is the issue: What the owner knew before the incident. With all due respect, the precedent set by the majority opinion in this case is bad for two reasons: First, it completely ignores the duty of an owner of a domestic animal to a trespasser. In all of our cases similar incidents have either occurred off the premises of the owner, or at a public place — not on the private property of the owner. There is no evidence at all that the owner in this case knew that the dog was vicious before the incident. Second, it uses facts to support its conclusions that would not support a verdict against the owner of a domestic animal if our prior cases control. The majority has not been as careful as we were in the Bradley case or its predecessors. Where is the substantial evidence that this owner should have known of the propensities of this dog before the incident? Is an owner strictly liable to a trespasser in such cases based on facts which occur after the fact? That is contrary to AMI 1602 as amended by 1603. See Strange v. Stovall, supra; Finley v. Smith, 240 Ark. 323, 399 S.W. 2d 271 (1966); Vangilder v. Faulk, 244 Ark. 688, 426 S.W. 2d 821 (1938). Is an owner of a domestic animal to be held liable for an animal’s act when there is no evidence at all that he should have known the dog would bite strangers? On his own farm? I would reverse the judgment and dismiss the case.