Alabama Dog Bite Law

TITLE 3. ANIMALS

CHAPTER 6. LIABILITY OF OWNERS OF DOGS BITING OR INJURING PERSONS

Code of Ala. § 3-6-1 (2003)

§ 3-6-1. Generally

If any dog shall, without provocation, bite or injure any person who is at the time at a place where he or she has a legal right to be, the owner of such dog shall be liable in damages to the person so bitten or injured, but such liability shall arise only when the person so bitten or injured is upon property owned or controlled by the owner of such dog at the time such bite or injury occurs or when such person has been immediately prior to such time on such property and has been pursued therefrom by such dog.

NOTES:

CROSS REFERENCES. --Liability for vicious dog, § 3-1-3.

Liability of dog owner for injuries to livestock, § 3-1-6.

ROBERTS, CUSIMANO: TORT LAW. --12.1; 12.1, nn. 37, 50, 51, 53.

AM. JUR. 2D. --Am. Jur. 2d, Animals, § 96 et seq.

C.J.S. --C.J.S., Animals, § 177 et seq.

ALR. --Absolute or strict liability for dog bite. 51 ALR4th 446.

Liability for injuries caused by cat. 68 ALR4th 823.

Owner of animal, liability for damage to motor vehicle or injury to person riding therein resulting from collision with domestic animal at large in street or highway. 29 ALR4th 431.

Liability for injury inflicted by horse, dog, or other domestic animal exhibited at show. 68 ALR5th 599.

CASE NOTES
General comment
Liability
When applicable
Illustrative cases Cited

GENERAL COMMENT.

Where claims against the owner of dog involved in attack on child were not involved in appeal, this section, setting out the liability of a dog owner, does not govern the disposition of the case. Gentle v. Pine Valley Apts., 631 So. 2d 928 (Ala. 1994).

LIABILITY.

Nothing in this section indicates that anyone other than the owner can be held liable pursuant to the statute. Humphries v. Rice, 600 So. 2d 975 (Ala. 1992).

Wife of owner of dog which attacked another was not liable since she was not the owner, and she was not liable even though she may have been the keeper of the dog. Humphries v. Rice, 600 So. 2d 975 (Ala. 1992).

WHEN APPLICABLE.

In this case the attack happened off the owner's premises, some nine miles from the defendant's home, so that this action is governed by the rules of common law negligence, not this section. Rucker v. Goldstein, 497 So. 2d 491 (Ala. 1986).

This section does not apply to one who is the "keeper" rather than the "owner" of the dog. Humphries v. Rice, 600 So. 2d 975 (Ala. 1992).

ILLUSTRATIVE CASES.

This section was not applicable to an action brought by a motorcyclist and his passenger who were injured when a dog ran out into the road and collided with the motorcycle, causing it to crash, where the motorcyclist and his passenger were riding on a public highway and they had never entered the owner's property. Williams v. Hill, 658 So. 2d 381 (Ala. 1995).

CITED IN Allen ex rel. Allen v. Whitehead, 423 So. 2d 835 (Ala. 1982); Kent v. Sims, 460 So. 2d 144 (Ala. 1984); King v. Breen, 560 So. 2d 186 (Ala. 1990); Wright v. Calvin Reid Constr. Co., 723 So. 2d 55 (Ala. Civ. App. 1997).

TITLE 3. ANIMALS

CHAPTER 6. LIABILITY OF OWNERS OF DOGS BITING OR INJURING PERSONS

Code of Ala. § 3-6-4 (2003)

§ 3-6-4. Construction

Nothing in this chapter shall be construed as diminishing any right or liability for injury by dog bites now existing under the laws of this state.

NOTES:

ROBERTS, CUSIMANO: TORT LAW. --12.1; 12.1, nn. 56, 57, 58.

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