Dog and other pet owners and insurers in New York are now exposed to increased risk of liability in the wake of a Court of Appeals ruling that allows an injured party to bring a ordinary negligence claim against a domestic animal owner for the first time.
The New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, has ruled that domestic animal owners may be held liable for an injury if they are deemed negligent for failing to exercise due care under the circumstances that caused their injury.
That’s a broader standard than the strict liability theory that has been in place for decades and holds that a dog owner could only be held strictly liable if the owner knew or should have known the animal had “vicious propensities.”