Brown v. Carpenter
Supreme Court of Vermont
Trespass for killing the plaintiff’s dog. The declaration is in common form. The defendant filed a plea in bar, setting forth, that the said dog was, and for a long time had been fierce and dangerous, and that he had bitten defendant, and sundry other persons, that all this was known to the plaintiff, and to those he entrusted with the keeping of said dog, and that with this knowledge said dog was suffered to go at large; wherefore the defendant killed said dog as he had…
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Trespass for killing the plaintiff’s dog. The declaration is in common form. The defendant filed a plea in bar, setting forth, that the said dog was, and for a long time had been fierce and dangerous, and that he had bitten defendant, and sundry other persons, that all this was known to the plaintiff, and to those he entrusted with the keeping of said dog, and that with this knowledge said dog was suffered to go at large; wherefore the defendant killed said dog as he had good right to do. Issue joined, and trial by jury. On the trial, the defendant offered testimony tending to prove, that the…
1Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
Red field , Ch. J.
We think that a ferocious and over-grown dog, known to the owner or keeper to be accustomed to bite man-' kind, is to be regarded as at large, within the common import of *642those terms, in a plea in bar, when he is so far free from restraint, as to be liable to do mischief to man or beast; and this, such a dog is always liable to do, when not physically restrained, in the language of the judge in the court below. His being in the presence of. his keeper affords no safe assurance that his known propensities will not prevail over the…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Putnam v. PayneNew York Supreme Court · 1816
3Cited by11 opinions
- Muller v. . McKessonNew York Court of Appeals · 1878
- Blair v. ForehandMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1868
- Woolf v. ChalkerSupreme Court of Connecticut · 1862
- Meibus v. DodgeWisconsin Supreme Court · 1875
- Graham v. PayneIndiana Supreme Court · 1890
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