The Legal Intelligencer 7/22/14
According to Thomas J. Newell, who represented plaintiff Mandy S. Bitting in the case, the decision is the first instance of a judge allowing a plaintiff to seek punitive damages in a cases where the dog had not previously bitten people.
The decision also held that Bitting could pursue recovery of medical costs based on strict liability claims, as opposed to claims involving negligence or negligence perse, and allowed Bitting to introduce evidence regarding a post-incident event that involved a co-worker of Bitting’s nearly being bitten by the same dogs after the owner had been charged with failing to restrain them, Newell said.
