Trager v. Thor’s Empirical Analysis
1994
Citation profile
12 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 14 later decisions — most recently December 2017
12 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.
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 14 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"[A] negligence cause of action arises when there is ineffective control of an animal in a situation where it would reasonably be expected that injury could occur, and injury does proximately result from the negligence. The amount of control required is that which would be exercised by a reasonable person based upon the total situation at the time, including the past behavior of the animal and the injuries that could have been reasonably foreseen." [ Trager v. Thor , 445 Mich. 95 , 106, 516 N.W.2d 69 (1994) (citation omitted).]”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“In determining whether a duty exists in a negligence action involving domestic animals, trial courts must consider “the normal characteristics of the animal that caused the injury, as well as any abnormally dangerous characteristics of which the defendant has knowledge. Thus, if the possessor of such an animal, including one in temporary possession, has knowledge of some dangerous propensity unique to the particular animal, or is aware that the animal is in such a situation that a danger of foreseeable harm might arise, the possessor has a legally recognized duty to control the animal to an extent reasonable to guard against the foreseeable danger.””
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Gardner v. Simon“[Liability is not imposed because of a failure to restrain the animal, since the utmost care in that regard is not a defense to liability____ In order for such allocation [of strict liability] to be equitable, the liable party must have sufficient custody and sufficient control of the animal to assess whether a risk is presented by an abnormal propensity and to decide whether an animal should be brought into or remain in the community. It is this proprietary control, akin to ownership, that we hold must be present to deem a party a keeper, and potentially liable, under the common-law strict liability principle.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Spirlong v. Browne
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.