Court Opinion

ID: 9450298
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 16:41:23.180899+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:14.533042
License: Public Domain

WASHINGTON, Circuit Judge,
concurring: Whatever the liability of the District of Columbia for acts of its human agents, who are presumably subject to ultimate control by the President and the Congress, I think that the theory of sovereign immunity should not be applied to harms caused by non-human agencies that are inherently dangerous to life, limb and property when left unchecked and uncontrolled. The District must at least be liable, if not as an employer for the acts of an employee, as a proprietor and user, for the evil caused by an inherently dangerously instrumentality. While the sovereign immunity doctrine has little to commend it in any respect, the public ordinarily has at least the small comfort of knowing that human agents usually possess the will and the capacity to act reasonably and to conduct themselves accordingly. Police dogs, however, having little or no volition or ability to reason, present the continuous risk to the public of being unresponsive to the conditioning process, or responding, as here, in an unforeseen manner to an unforeseen stimulus. It is arguable that trained dogs are a considerable asset to the police force in protecting the public and apprehending fugitives. But they may turn out to be a nuisance and even a *954terror to peaceable, law-abiding citizens. The community should bear the cost of injuries (or certainly the cost of insuring against injuries) it produces by using potentially dangerous and vicious animals to protect itself.