Broken gate leads to large dog attacking woman walking her small dog

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Akita attacks a woman in her mid-seventies while walking her small dog.

A large breed Akita (dog) escaped from its yard due to a faulty gate latch while our client was walking her small dog. My client and her small dog were both injured when the Akita attacked them. The Akita’s owner denied that anything was wrong with their gate. His insurance company refused to accept responsibility. As witnesses, neighbors confirmed that the Akita had been loose several times before due to the broken gate, and that the gate was indeed broken at the time of the attack.

Our client, a woman in her mid-seventies, was out walking her dog in her neighborhood. During her walk, a large Akita ran from across the street and began to attack her small dog on the leash. To get her dog away from the Akita, our client pulled her dog up by the leash. In its frenzy, the Akita lunged at our client, biting and tearing at her arm several times as well as biting her legs several times. A neighbor rushed out of his house, grabbed the Akita by the collar, and yanked it away from our client. Our client’s injuries necessitated treatment at a wound care facility. (Her small dog survived, but he also needed surgery at the vet’s office.)

The claim was initially denied by the homeowner’s insurance company. Their homeowner claimed that children in the neighborhood opened his gate without his permission, allowing his dog to escape from his back yard. The homeowner denied there was anything wrong with his gate. According to neighbor interviews, the homeowner’s gate would frequently open due to a broken latch on the gate. They stated that the dog in question had occasionally run loose in the neighborhood due to the gate issue. The dog would bark loudly at people as they walked by the house, and the neighbors were always concerned that the dog would enter through the broken gate. A lawsuit was filed, and neighbors were deposed about the condition of the gate and seeing the dog running loose in the neighborhood on multiple occasions as a result of the gate’s condition. When confronted with evidence that contradicted their homeowner’s claims, the insurance company settled the case and paid the full amount of the claim, which covered our client’s medical treatment, pain and suffering, and the injuries to her small dog.