South Florida Injury Lawyers Blog
Florida Statute 767.04 imposes strict liability on dog owners for bites inflicted on others, no matter whether the dog was known to be vicious or whether the owner had knowledge of such viciousness.
Strict liability means the owner can be held responsible to pay for damages caused by the bite, even if the owner didn’t do anything wrong. All that has to be shown is that defendant owned/ had control of the dog, the dog bit the plaintiff and plaintiff suffered injuries.
In the recent case of Arellano v. Broward K-9, Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal was asked to weigh whether a plaintiff in a dog bite case was precluded in her dog bite claim against defendant due to her own actions, which defendant asserted were the superseding and intervening cause. The appeals court reversed the trial court’s summary judgment in favor of defendant, citing the strict liability portion of the state’s dog bite law. Continue reading →