Court Opinion

ID: 9530752
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:03:14.03576+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:14.325450
License: Public Domain

DARDEN, Judge,
concurring in result
I write to concur in the result reached by the majority but also to express my inability to support its statement of disagreement with the holding of Vetor “that a ‘dangerous propensity on the part of the animal may be deduced from even playful conduct.’ ” Op. at 742-43. To me, the Vetor analysis as to whether an animal may be deduced to have a dangerous propensity is fact sensitive and must be conducted on a case-by-case basis. As an example of why I believe Vetor to be correct, I suggest an example with facts different than those before us. If the owner of a particularly large dog, such as. a Great Dane, was aware of the dog’s tendency to jump on people — conduct which the owner viewed as “playful,” — and that dog then jumped on a small child who was knocked down and injured, I believe that the inference of the owner’s knowledge of the dog’s dangerous propensity is permissible.
Furthermore, I believe the majority’s view contradicts our holding in Royer v. Pryor, 427 N.E.2d 1112, 1117 (Ind.Ct.App.1981), wherein the court held:
To overcome the presumption that a domestic, as opposed to a wild, animal is harmless, one must point to a known vicious or dangerous propensity of the animal in question. A dangerous or vicious propensity has been defined in Indiana as “a propensity or tendency of an animal to do any act which might endanger the safety of person or property in a given situation. It is the act of the animal and not in the state of mind of the animal from which the effects of a dangerous propensity must be determined.” Doe v. Barnett (1969) 145 Ind.App. 542, 251 N.E.2d 688, 694, trans. denied (1970). See also, 3A C.J.S. Animals § 180 (1973).
For this reason, I agree with the holding of Vetor.