Dog Bites
Pursuant to Connecticut General Statues §22-357, the owner or keeper of a dog is strictly liable for injuries caused by their dog. This means, with few limited exceptions, the dog’s owner is responsible for injuries caused by their dog without consideration of negligence.
The law applies to the owner or “keeper” of a dog. For purposes of this law, a “keeper” is a person who treats the dog as living at their house and is responsible for the dog’s actions. In other words, the person who takes care of the dog.
Exceptions
The owner or keeper of the dog will not be responsible for injuries caused by the dog, if the injured person was:
Trespassing on the property where the injury occurred; or
Teasing, tormenting, or abusing the dog.
“Teasing, tormenting, or abusing” means conduct, without justification, which would naturally antagonize or irritate the dog and cause it to attack. Normal interactions with a dog, such as petting and friendly playing do not rise to the level of “teasing, tormenting, or abusing”.
There is a legal presumption that anyone below the age of seven (7) was not teasing, tormenting or abusing a dog.
Not just for “dog bites”
This law applies to any injury caused by a dog engaging in vicious or mischievous conduct, even if it does not involve a bite. This includes instances where a person is knocked over by a dog or injured themselves while trying to get away from a dog.
For example, in Coppedge v. Travis, a dog’s owner was responsible for injuries sustained by a woman who tripped and fell while trying to avoid an unleashed dog running in her direction. Here, the injured woman was allowed to recover for her injuries although the dog never made contact with her. See Coppedge v. Travis, 187 Conn. App. 528, 537, 202 A.3d 1116, 1122 (2019).
Connecticut does not require that a dog owner be aware that a specific dog has a history of aggressive behavior in order to hold the dog owner responsible.
Landlords
The strict liability statute mentioned above does not apply to landlords. However, a landlord may be found to be responsible for injuries caused by a dog on rental property under certain circumstances.
In this type of a case, the dog is treated like any other dangerous condition on a property. This means that the injured person must be able to show that the landlord knew or reasonably should have know that the dog resided at the rental property and that the dog was dangerous.