George M. Heymann The 'Vicious Propensities' Rule and Property Owner Liability, Part 2
In light of the recent appellate decision in 'Hewitt v. Palmer Veterinary Clinic', former Housing Court Judge George Heymann provides an update on his previous articles on the topic of "vicious propensities" and a landowner's duty of care.
January 21, 2021 at 10:52 AM
14 minute read
In an earlier published article on this subject, The 'Vicious Propensities' Rule and Property Owner Liability, NYLJ (May 8, 2019), which I co-authored with Matthew J. Kaiser, we provided a detailed analysis of the then-recent appellate case Hewitt v. Palmer Veterinary Clinic, PC, 167 A.D.3d 1120 (3d Dept. 2018). That decision stirred a great deal of interest in this area of personal injury law because it effectively held that a landowner could be absolved from its nondelegable duty of care if the instrumentality of harm was the domestic animal owned by another.
Based on the sole dissent, we posited the query as to whether liability should attach to such property owner on a theory of negligence for not exercising proper care to a third party on the property, notwithstanding the issue of vicious propensities.
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