Dearth v. Baker

Decided September 15, 1867

Wisconsin Supreme Court · decided 1867-09-15

Action for damages accruing to plaintiff by reason of his team of horses, while being driVen upon a highway, having been attacked by defendant’s dog, and caused to run away, whereby one of the horses was killed. The complaint avers that the dog was in the habit of attacking teams on the highway, and that plaintiff knew of such habit. Answer, a general denial.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1867-09-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 9 later decisions — most recently March 1943

6 state decisions

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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DowNER, J.

¶1The evidence shows that the dog jumped upon .one of the horses of the plaintiff, and barked, and so frightened the horses that they ran away, and one of them was killed. But there is no evidence that the appellant-(defendant below) previously knew that the dog was accustomed to do such acts, or that he had ever done such an act before. The owner of a domestic animal is not liable for injuries done by such animal, unless he previously had notice of his vicious or mischievous propensities, or the injury was attributable to some neglect on his part. Chitty’s Pl., 69; Vrooman v. Lawyer, 13 Johns., 339.

¶2By the Court. — -The judgment is reversed, and a venire de novo awarded.