House Judiciary Committee reviews H183 to create statutory dog-owner liability

On May 20, the House Judiciary Committee heard a staff walkthrough of H183, a bill that would create a statutory liability standard for damages caused by domestic dogs, Eric Fitzpatrick of the Office of Legislative Council told the committee.

The proposed language would "establish a strict liability standard," Fitzpatrick said, shifting some proof burdens in civil lawsuits by creating a statutory duty for owners ‘‘to keep the dog under reasonable control at all times’’ and ‘‘to keep the dog from running at large.’’ If an owner breaches those duties, the bill would make the owner civilly liable for resulting damages, according to Fitzpatrick's presentation.

Committee members and staff discussed why the change matters: under current state provisions cited in the walkthrough, municipalities can adopt their own ordinances that operate instead of the fallback state procedure. Fitzpatrick said the draft removes the existing municipal-process language and instead focuses on the private civil-liability standard, noting the two…