Liability Poser

dacouch

Interesting item on Jeremy Vine show today.

Which was basically this article and had the dog owner and kennel owner on the phone.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2221414/Farmer-shoots-collies-dead-escape-boarding-kennels-owners-holiday.html

Dog owner was complaining about the lack of communication from the kennel owner who advised he was told not to make any communications with the dog owner.

The dog owner has used the kennel 6 times before for which the kennel have fully documented along with signed form on preferences and habits of the dog which states he does not need to be on a lead when being exercised.

A claim is clearly being made under the Public Liability.

It's an unfortunate situation, but got my insurance mind curious and is probably an interesting topic for discussion.

What would the heads of claim be?

Would the kennel actually be liable?

Matthew_W

The kennel has a duty of care and with the dogs escaping they will most likely be held liable.

InsideInsurance

You want to sully my browser history by clicking on a link to the Daily Hate?

Heads of claim would be for the value of the dog and the catch all PSLA. If they were working dogs then there could be additional losses there, obviously if they are just pets then not.

As to liability? Its a hard one without knowing more of the details (eg wording of the contract) and knowing more about dogs than I do to say if the perimeter is appropriate or if anything bigger than a sausage dog could jump it etc

dacouch

Supposedly it has good fencing with no holes etc, the dogs are pets and not boisterous.

Being collies they would have been drawn to the sheep

InsideInsurance

If you are looking at a case of negligence then it is evidently down to reasonableness. If it is reasonable to think the dog cannot jump a 6' fence, that it is well maintained, no history of previous escapes etc then it would be hard to argue, especially if the owner had asked for them to be exercised off the lead. Evidently there could be a contractual liability even if there isnt a negligence one but that really comes down to wordings.

Having now sullied my computer the element that makes it worse for the kennel owners is the comment that the dogs had escaped before and therefore they were aware of the risks and took no additional precautions

dacouch

[QUOTE=InsideInsurance;56742989
Having now sullied my computer the element that makes it worse for the kennel owners is the comment that the dogs had escaped before and therefore they were aware of the risks and took no additional precautions[/QUOTE]

The dogs running away before is denied by the kennel owner

InsideInsurance

It says:

Daily_Hate wrote:

Although it was pointed out to them that Millie had been able to clear the four-foot fences during a previous stay at the kennels, the Rodens had agreed their dogs could be exercised off the lead because they believed the dogs would obey any calls to come back if they strayed too far away.

Dont see anywhere it says that the kennels deny the dogs had ever escaped before.

Obviously the second point to explore is the actions of the farmer in shooting the animals. The law only allows them to do so if they are causing issues with livestock, simply being on the land doesnt give them the right to kill them.

dacouch

InsideInsurance wrote: »

It says:


Dont see anywhere it says that the kennels deny the dogs had ever escaped before.

Obviously the second point to explore is the actions of the farmer in shooting the animals. The law only allows them to do so if they are causing issues with livestock, simply being on the land doesnt give them the right to kill them.

They had the dog owner and kennel owner on the Jeremy Vine show, dog owner says the kennel owner said the dogs jumped the fence the day before, kennel owner denies this.

Farmer had returned two neighboors dogs to their home when they've escaped into field but when the two collies escaped into the field he shot them

Buellguy

dacouch wrote: »

They had the dog owner and kennel owner on the Jeremy Vine show, dog owner says the kennel owner said the dogs jumped the fence the day before, kennel owner denies this.

Farmer had returned two neighboors dogs to their home when they've escaped into field but when the two collies escaped into the field he shot them

Suppose it all depends on what the other 2 dogs were doing and what the collies were doing at the time. However, this quote makes the farmer seem a lot more reasonable (i.e. not just shooting ALL dogs on his land)