Utah Law Talk

Two Bull Mastiffs broke through a fence in a neighborhood in Kearns, Utah on February 26, 2009, and bit a woman’s finger off at about the last knuckle. It happened at 6085 South 5185 West. According to KSL News, the woman was trying to repair her fence when the dog attack happened. The dogs were apparently already in her yard. Both had gotten through the wood-slat fence dividing the two properties. The victim’s grandson reports that they had problems with the two dogs going back two years. Officials from the Salt Lake County Animal Services say that is unsual. The woman was taken to the hospital for treatment. Salt Lake County Animal Control officers located the fingertip and sent it off to the hospital with the hopes that doctors are able to reattach it. Meanwhile, the dogs are in quarantine until officials determine if they have rabies and if they are still a threat.
Legally speaking, the victim in this story has a claim against the owner of the dog that bit her. It doesn’t matter that the dog has been bothering her family for two years or that the bite came out-of-the-blue. No warning or “violent propensities” are needed in Utah since the law imposes “strict liability” on the dog’s owner.
I actually had a case almost identical to this one, where the tip of my client’s finger was bit right off his hand. Unfortunately, he never located the finger tip and now has a finger shorter than the other. In these kind of cases, the victim will want to get the name of the dog owner’s home insurance, assuming the dog owner has some. There is usually coverage for at least $100,000 for personal injury claims. In this dog bite case, I would recommend that the woman contact an attorney who has experience in dog bite cases to find out what her rights and potential remedies are.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 26th, 2009 at 2:06 pm and is filed under Dog Bites, Personal Injury. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.