Landlord Not Responsible for Dog Bite by Tenant's Dog

Plaintiff sued landlord for damages from injuries she received when she was bitten by a dog owned by tenants in a house owned by landlord. She also claimed that landlord was negligent. The court denied landlord's request to dismiss the case. Landlord appealed and won. A landlord can be held strictly liable for injuries caused by a tenant's dog when landlord: (a) had notice that tenant kept a dog; (b) knew or should have known that the dog had vicious propensities; and (c) had sufficient control of the premises to allow landlord to remove or confine the dog. In this case, although landlord knew that tenant had a dog and could have required tenant to remove or confine the dog, landlord had no actual or constructive knowledge that tenant's dog had any vicious propensities. The plaintiff's negligence claim should have been dismissed because cases involving injuries inflicted by domestic animals can only be based on a theory of strict liability based on an owner's knowledge of the animal's vicious propensities.

Toher v. Duchnycz: 97 N.Y.S.3d 901, 2019 NY Slip Op 03487 (App. Div. 4 Dept.; 5/3/19; Whalen, PJ, Centra, DeJoseph, Curran, Winslow, JJ)