If a dog, without provocation, attacks or injures any person who is acting peaceably in any place where the person may lawfully be, the owner of the dog is liable in damages to the person so attacked or injured to the full amount of the injury sustained. The term "owner" includes any person harboring or keeping a dog but the owner shall be primarily liable. The term "dog" includes both male and female of the canine species.
Minn. Stat. § 347.22
DAMAGES, OWNER LIABLE.
Applied in 32 court decisions — leading case Seim Ex Rel. Seim v. Garavalia (1981)
Most recently applied in Christina Berrier v. Minnesota State Patrol (July 2024)
1951 c 315 s 1; 1980 c 347 s 1; 1986 c 444
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Reproduced from public-domain Minnesota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.