Johnston v. Warendh

• Decision Date: 30 November 2001
• Docket Number: No. A01A1481., No. A01A1480
• Citation: 556 S.E.2d 867,252 Ga. App. 674
• Parties: JOHNSTON v. WARENDH et al. (Two Cases).
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

556 S.E.2d 867

252 Ga. App. 674

JOHNSTON v. WARENDH et al. (Two Cases).

Nos. A01A1480, A01A1481.

Court of Appeals of Georgia.

November 30, 2001.

Gray, Hedrick & Edenfield, Lloyd B. Hedrick, Jr., Atlanta, for appellants.

Gibson, Deal & Fletcher, John W. Gibson, Norcross, for appellees. POPE, Presiding Judge.

Agneta and Per-Olof Warendh filed suit against Lori Johnston and her brother, Robert Johnston, seeking damages for injuries Agneta Warendh sustained when she was attacked by two Rottweilers outside the home the Johnstons shared with Michelle Berndt. The trial court denied in part the Johnstons' motions for summary judgment, finding the existence of genuine issues of material fact as to whether the dogs were "confined on the premises" within the meaning of the local ordinance. The court granted their motions for partial summary judgment as to punitive damages and attorney fees. After granting the defendants' applications for interlocutory appeal, we affirm.

When ruling on a motion for summary judgment, the party opposing the motion should be given the benefit of all reasonable doubt, and the court should construe the evidence and all inferences and conclusions therefrom most favorably toward that party. Lau's Corp. v. Haskins, 261 Ga. 491, 405 S.E.2d 474 (1991); Moore v. Goldome Credit Corp., 187 Ga.App. 594, 596, 370 S.E.2d 843 (1988).

So construed, the evidence shows that Robert Johnston and Berndt each owned one of the dogs. Neither of the dogs' owners was home on the date in question, December 20, 1997. The Warendhs, who used to live in the Roswell home, went there to retrieve their mail. Agneta Warendh either knocked or rang the doorbell, and Lori Johnston answered the door. Agneta Warendh deposed that she observed the dogs barking behind Lori Johnston, who shut the door, reopened it, and tried to slip out. The dogs pushed the door open and ran out of the house. Lori Johnston tried to grab one of the dogs' collars, but she was unable to restrain the animal. At least one of the dogs attacked Agneta Warendh, jumping on her and biting her arms and abdomen. Lori Johnston was eventually able to get the dogs inside and secure them in the kitchen.

Case No. A01A1480

1. In her appeal, Lori Johnston contends that she was entitled to summary judgment on the Warendhs' claim that she violated OCGA § 51-2-7. We disagree.

That statute provides:

A person who owns or keeps a vicious or dangerous animal of any kind and who, by careless management or by allowing the animal to go at liberty, causes injury to another person who does not provoke the injury by his own act may be liable in damages to the person so injured. In proving vicious propensity, it shall be sufficient to show that the animal was required to be at heel or on a leash by an ordinance of a city, county, or consolidated government, and that the said animal was at the time of the occurrence not at heel or on a leash.

See Oertel v. Chi Psi Fraternity, 239 Ga. App. 147, 148-149(2), 521 S.E.2d 71 (1999).

As a preliminary matter, the Warendhs' case against Lori Johnston requires them to prove that she kept the dogs, because there was evidence that she did not actually own either of the animals. Although in her answer Lori Johnston denied that she kept the dogs, she did not argue the point in her motion for summary judgment, nor did she enumerate as error the trial court's implicit finding that the record raised an issue as to her keeping the dogs. Our review of the record shows that a jury issue exists as to whether she was keeping the dogs at the time of the incident.¹ See, e.g., Goodman v. Kahn, 182 Ga.App. 724, 725, 356 S.E.2d 757 (1987). See generally Ludington, Annotation, Who "Harbors" or "Keeps" Dog Under Animal Liability Statute, 64 A.L.R.4th 963 (2001).

The first sentence of OCGA § 51-2-7 has been applied in dog bite cases in Georgia since Cobb's Code of 1863. After 1863, appellate courts modified the statute by asserting that it was "but a restatement of the common law, and at common law ... it was necessary to show, not only that the animal was vicious or dangerous, but also that the owner knew this fact. The scienter was the gist of the action." Harvey v. Buchanan, 121 Ga. 384, 385, 49 S.E. 281 (1904). ² Accord Clark v. Joiner, 242 Ga.App. 421, 530 S.E.2d 45 (2000). Moreover, the defendant's knowledge of the dangerous propensity must be greater than any such knowledge possessed by the plaintiff. Wade v. American Nat. Ins. Co., 246 Ga.App. 458, 461(1), 540 S.E.2d 671 (2000).

In 1985, the General Assembly expanded upon the scienter rule, also known as the "first bite rule," by amending the statute to add the second sentence, which creates liability based upon a violation of a local or county ordinance and requires no proof of scienter. As amended, OCGA § 51-2-7 allows cities and counties, if they wish, to afford a higher degree of protection to people than allowed at common law. See generally Fields v. Thompson, 190 Ga.App. 177, 178, 378 S.E.2d 390 (1989).³

The incident which led to this lawsuit occurred in the City of Roswell, a municipality which has enacted a so-called "leash law." A certified copy of the ordinance was included in the record and reads as follows:

Any person having custody of a dog within the city limits shall be required to confine the dog on the premises of the owner of the dog or on the premises of someone authorized by the owner. Dogs shall not be permitted to be on any streets, alleys or any other place in the city off the premises of the custodian of the dog, except on a leash not more than six (6) feet long and in the care of a competent person.

City of Roswell Code, § 4-29.

Lori Johnston argues that she did not violate the Roswell ordinance because it merely required that the dogs be "on the premises of the owner." She contends that the ordinance did not require the dogs to be "at heel or on a leash" at the time of the attack and, therefore, she may not be held liable under OCGA § 51-2-7. Additionally, Lori Johnston argues that the dogs were technically on the premises of their owners when Agneta Warendh was injured, so no violation of the ordinance occurred.

We disagree. First, we find that the statute contemplates restrictive ordinances such as the one in this case. We further conclude that a jury issue remains as to whether the dogs were running at large in violation of the Roswell ordinance.

In Tutak v. Fairley, 198 Ga.App. 307, 401 S.E.2d 73 (1991), we reversed a grant of summary judgment in a similar case and found that a jury issue remained as to whether a Glynn County ordinance prohibiting dogs from running at large had been violated and whether a dog's owners should be held liable for injuries caused by the animal. In that case, a dog broke loose from a chain in the owners' backyard, ran into their front yard, and bit a child. Id. We found that "[a]lthough the animal may have been physically within the boundaries of the appellees' property at the time, it clearly was not `confined' there." Id. at 308, 401 S.E.2d 73. Cf. Clark, 242 Ga.App. at 422(1), 530 S.E.2d 45 (Camden County ordinance specifically defined "confined" as being "`merely on the property of the owner'") (emphasis omitted).

Similarly, the ordinance in the case at bar requires a person having custody of a dog to "confine the dog on the premises of the owner of the dog or on the premises of someone authorized by the owner." (Emphasis supplied.) Roswell Code, § 4-29. There was evidence that the dogs were not confined at the time of the attack, as they ran through the door and were loose in the front yard. Thus, the evidence of record does not negate the allegation that the dogs were in violation of the applicable ordinance, and whether Lori Johnston should be held liable under OCGA § 51-2-7 is a jury issue. The trial court properly denied Lori Johnston's motion for summary judgment.

2. In addition, the appellees attempt to raise a jury issue under the first sentence of OCGA § 51-2-7 by arguing that Lori Johnston had scienter because she deposed that she had heard people say that Rottweilers are "aggressive dogs." They buttress their argument by attaching to their appellate brief copies of miscellaneous pieces of information, apparently gleaned from the Internet, and a newspaper article, Erin McClam, "Rottweilers Take Lead in Fatal Attacks by Dogs," Atlanta Journal, September 16, 2000, p. A3. The unauthenticated exhibits assert, inter alia, that there were 13 dog bite-related fatalities in Georgia between 1979 and 1996 and that Rottweilers were involved in more fatalities than any other breed.

Exhibits attached to briefs on appeal are not part of the record and cannot be considered as evidence. SurgiJet, Inc. v. Hicks, 236 Ga.App. 80, 82(4), 511 S.E.2d 194 (1999). There is no showing in the record that the defendants had knowledge of any of the statistics asserted in the various hearsay articles and on the various Web pages. Moreover, Georgia law has, in the past, adhered to a rule that the breed of a dog is irrelevant to liability. Stanger v. Cato, 182 Ga.App. 498, 356 S.E.2d 97 (1987) (Doberman pinscher).

Our Georgia statute addresses injuries caused by vicious or dangerous animals. OCGA § 51-2-7. "A vicious animal is any individual of a vicious species, or a vicious individual of a harmless species." Phillips v. DeWald, 79 Ga. 732, 735, 7 S.E. 151 (1887). Traditionally, courts have presumed all dogs to be of a harmless species and hence required proof of the dangerous nature of a particular dog and proof of his owner's knowledge of that individual's deviation from presumptive harmlessness. See, e.g., Montgomery v. Maryland Cas. Co., 169 Ga. 746, 748, 151 S.E. 363 (1930); Patton v. State, 93 Ga. 111, 112, 19 S.E. 734 (1893).

The appellees' exhibits about Rottweilers and dog bites are evidently offered to rebut Georgia's longstanding judicial insistence that dogs are a harmless species of animal...