Commonwealth v. Hake’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

10 state decisions

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 10 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The owner or keeper of the dog shall be guilty of the summary offense of harboring a dangerous dog if the district justice finds beyond a reasonable doubt that the following elements of the offense have been proven: (1) The dog has done one or more of the following: (1) Inflicted severe injury on a human being without provocation on public or private property. (ii) Killed or inflicted severe injury on a domestic animal without provocation while off the owner’s property. (iii) Attacked a human being without provocation. (iv) Been used in the commission of a crime. (2) The dog has either or both of the following: (i) A history of attacking human beings and/or domestic animals without provocation. (ii) A propensity to attack human beings and/or domestic animals without provocation. A propensity to attack may be proven by a single incident of the conduct described in paragraph (1)(i), (ii), (iii) or (iv).”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Aegis Security Insurance Co. v. Pennsylvania Insurance Department · Commonwealth v. Baldwin

2. “Most importantly, the 1996 amendments specifically provide that the propensity to attack may be proven by a single incident of the infliction of severe injury or attack on a human being, clearly permitting a finding of a “propensity” to attack human beings by virtue of the attack in question, even if it is only the first attack. While this interpretation may impose absolute criminal liability for any unprovoked attack by the owner or keeper’s dog, such an interpretation is not without basis in predecessor dog statutes... The 1996 amendments [present 502-A of the Dog Law] clearly address the legislature’s response to holdings, such as Eritano, 5 which required multiple incidents before liability could have been imposed. The 1996 amendments added specific words such as “single incident” to ensure that where it is clear from one attack that a dog is dangerous, that the “owners or keepers” are criminally liable for the summary offense of harboring a dangerous dog.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Baldwin