Landlord May Be Responsible for Dog Attack on Tenant’s Guest

After a child attended a Halloween party at landlord’s apartment building, he visited tenant’s apartment and was bitten by tenant’s pit bull dog. The child’s family sued tenant and landlord for negligence. Landlord claimed that he wasn’t responsible and asked the court to dismiss the case. The court ruled against landlord, who appealed and lost. There were pretrial statements from other tenants that the dog had vicious tendencies and was muzzled during walks. Landlord had learned about the dog a few months before the incident, claimed that he was unaware of any problems, but wanted tenant to get rid of the dog because large dogs weren’t allowed at the building. Landlord argued that, even if it knew about the dog, he hadn’t had sufficient time to enforce its removal. There were questions of fact that required a trial as to whether landlord was responsible for failing to take action to remove the dog.

Rodgers v. Horizons at Monticello, LLP: 130 A.D.3d 1285, 2015 NY Slip Op 06189 (App. Div. 3d Dept.; 7/16/15; Peters, PJ, Lahtinen, Garry, Devine, JJ)