Ted Frank at Overlawyered points to a USA Today article recapping the state of play in malpractice suits against veterinarians. Using the death of a dog (the ironically named "Lucky") following a dental procedure as its starting point, the article describes what it claims is a growing trend toward expansive veterinary liability:
Barry Silver, the attorney for Lucky's owners, says that when the case goes to trial this year in Broward County, Fla., he intends to ask jurors to award hundreds of thousands of dollars to the dog's owners, Adam Riff and his mother, Ellen.
If Silver is successful, Lucky's case would join a series of recent court decisions that essentially have treated animals as human under the law. In a reflection of the special place that pets have come to hold in Americans' hearts, U.S. courts are bucking centuries of legal decisions that have defined animals as property.
In recent years, courts in New York, Maryland and Texas have resolved custody disputes involving pets by deciding what's best for the pet. Judges in 25 states have administered financial trusts set up in pets' names.
And as Lucky's case indicates, there has been another turn in animal law: Courts have begun to take claims of veterinary malpractice seriously.
As usual in these stories, there are several references to the case of Marc Bluestone, whose $39,000 judgment in Orange County last year is generally described as the largest veterinary malpractice award to date. Decs & Excs commented on the Bluestone case, in which our firm played a minor part prior to trial, in a December 6, 2004, item, here.
The Bluestone verdict has been appealed by the defendant veterinarians, with a cross-appeal by Mr. Bluestone (who apparently contends that he is entitled to an even larger award). The matter is before Division 3 of the Fourth District Court of Appeal, which has one of the more congested appellate dockets in the state: written briefing is just now getting started, and it is probable that it will be at least another year before the appeal is actually argued and ruled upon. Interested readers can follow the progress of the case via the Court's on-line docket.
Of related interest: A wide-ranging trove of resources on the law and its relation to animals can be accessed through the Animal Legal & Historical Center, a service of the College of Law of Michigan State University.
Comments