Dudley the dog’s tendency to bark at passing traffic and run hither and thither in his own yard does not give rise to an inference of vicious propensities, an upstate appellate panel has held in tossing out a lawsuit brought by a woman whose encounter with the canine caused her to fall off her bike.
In Buicko v. Noto, 516669, the Appellate Division, Third Department, again stressed that under New York law the owner of a dog that causes an injury is not liable under an ordinary negligence standard, and that strict liability kicks in only upon evidence that the animal had vicious propensities. The court said that a dog’s known propensity to chase bicycles or otherwise interfere with traffic can trigger strict liability.
