$470,000 Settlement for Dog Bite Injuries

$470,000 paid to a Westchester woman for injuries sustained from a dog bite. Unrelated to the dog attack, the plaintiff suffered a very rare, disabling disease, that left her largely homebound, and unable to travel very far by foot, even with the support of her cane. As a result, she retained a dog walking service to exercise her dog on group walks. She often invited the dog walker in for coffee and allowed the dogs to run around her fenced-in yard. One morning, one of the dogs charged her, biting her hand. Typically, the result would have been a few sutures, but in this instance, due to the client’s disability, she had multiple complications that resulted in spasm, surgery and partial loss of the use of her hand, which she needed to hold her cane. We sued the owner, for concealing their dog’s prior erratic bite history of others, and the dog owner, for not properly controlling the animal.