Court Opinion

ID: 9737736
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 19:33:27.570762+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:00.986191
License: Public Domain

*565DeBRULER, Justice,
dissenting.
Dunn Farms, Inc., was in the business of renting farms with fenced lots for enclosing domestic animals. The lot from which the animal escaped in this case had been rented to a tenant who had let it to a sub-tenant. The tenancy expired and the lot and fences were surrendered to Dunn. Upon taking it back Dunn discovered that domestic animals had been left in the lot by the former tenant. The fences enclosing the lot had become deteriorated and an animal strayed across them into the public thoroughfare causing severe injury to a passer-by. At common law the owner or keeper of domestic animals having the propensity to rove have a duty to confine them. Myers v. Dodd, (1857) 9 Ind. 290; Cook v. Morea, (1870) 33 Ind. 497. More recently that duty is placed upon persons “responsible for a domestic animal.” Ind. Code § 15-2.1-21-8. Also Ind. Code § 15-2-4-21, now repealed.
Dunn, as occupier of the land and fences at the time the animal strayed into the public road had authority to repair the fences or remove the animals. It had charge of the land upon which the animals stood, the fences which served to enclose them, the ingress and egress of the lot and thereby the availability of any food or water to them. It knew the animals were present. It was therefore in control and charge of them. As far as the public is concerned, Dunn should be considered the keeper of the animal which strayed into the path of the plaintiff’s car or in the alternative Dunn was responsible for the animal. I cannot therefore concur with the majority view that Dunn had no legal duty to protect others from its natural propensities. Neighbors and other concerned citizens could not lawfully go on the Dunn property to feed and water the animals and repair the fences so as to keep them from straying onto the road. These were not domestic animals which had strayed onto the Dunn land from adjoining lands of others. They were not wild animals. These were domestic animals left as a dangerous by-product of the rental business of the Dunn Farms, easily controlled and rendered harmless by proper care and fencing.