A divided Appellate Division, First Department, panel on Thursday revived a lawsuit filed by a man against the owner of a dog who ran across his path while he was cycling in Central Park, causing a collision.
The First Department had granted summary judgment to the dog owner, Julie Smith, in April (NYLJ, April 18). That decision relied on a line of New York cases holding that there is no remedy for injury caused by an animal unless it is caused by a propensity of the animal previously known to the owner. The First Department ruled in April that the cyclist, Wolfgang Doerr, had no remedy because Smith did not know her dog had a “propensity to interfere with traffic.”
