Articles Posted in Queens

In New York, the laws that cover an attack by a dog on a person or other animal are handled in civil court as a motion to recover damages. A New York Injury Lawyer said in a situation where a dog has bitten a person, the dog is usually tied up or on a leash and a stranger approaches it. It is important to note that the dog is almost always considered at fault in this type of encounter even though the person had to approach the dog and not the other way around.

However, it is never a good idea to leave a dog chained or tied without a fence around them. People are often attracted to dogs and are known to approach them. No one should approach a strange dog, especially when the dog is tied and cannot retreat. Most cornered animals will turn and fight. A tied or chained dog is no exception. In some cases, an owner of a vicious dog uses poor judgment. One particular case demonstrates several issues.

In this case, a dog owner often left his dog chained in the back yard. The chain was attached to a stake in the ground, and there was no fence around the back yard. The dog was known to grown, bark and lunge to the end of his chain if anyone came in to the backyard. A Staten Island Personal Injury Lawyer said on one occasion, the dog’s owner told one of his neighbors to stay away from the dog because it was known to bite. On June 26, 1986, a child approached the dog and was bitten. It is critical to note that at the time of the attack, the dog was on a chain and was in his own back yard. Thus, the child who was bitten had ventured on to the property that was owned by the dog’s owner and gone into the reach of the dog who was secured by a chain.

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Dog ownership is a serious commitment that is often misguided. Pet stores have made it easy for people to purchase puppies without having any knowledge of their breeding, background, or breed characteristics. Unlike reliable certified breeders, who inquire about the person’s knowledge of the breed and facilities to maintain large breeds, pet stores do little if anything to ensure that the purchaser is able to care for the dog. Many pet stores carry “bully breed” dogs. They sell them without providing the purchaser with any warnings about what the breed was originally bred for. All domesticated dogs were specifically bred to handle a need among people. Some breeds were bred specifically as guard dogs and as such were bred not to form as close a bond with people as other breeds.

People may purchase a large breed puppy because it is cute and has wrinkles, but in some cases, they might as well bring a loaded gun into their homes. A New York Injury Lawyer said more people are purchasing breeds like the Neapolitan Mastiff and others, which were bred to be guard dogs. These people think that they can make the dog a gentle pet. These dogs need exercise and they need a job. They were never intended as pets.

On February 8, 2008, a little girl went to her brother’s fiancée’s house to spend the night with her brother and his future bride and her daughter. That night, she played with the three dogs that belonged to the family. One was a 125-pound Neapolitan Mastiff, the second dog was a Golden Retriever, and the third was a Maltese which weighed less than ten pounds. The following morning, she went into the living room to say good-bye to the dogs. She grabbed dogs by the face, put her face up to theirs and kissed their noses. When she got to the Mastiff, she was sleeping. The child grabbed the sleeping dog’s face and pressed her face to the dog’s face. The dog was startled and leapt up. The dog’s foot hit the child in the face, causing a deep cut that required stiches. The child fell over the ottoman and struck her face on the coffee table which caused her to break her nose. The dog never growled, barked, bared its teeth, or bit the child. In fact, the dog was so terrified by the attack that she retreated to the kitchen and hid.

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A dermatologist was pregnant. Three weeks before she gave birth, dermatologist reported to her obstetrician that she had been experiencing abdominal pain, vomiting and she could not hold any food down. The woman had lost weight during the last few weeks of her pregnancy instead of gaining weight.

A New York Criminal Lawyer said the dermatologist was diagnosed with an infected gall bladder and gall stones at the time that she delivered her baby. The obstetrician claims that the mother made no such complaints to her. She claimed in her deposition that the pregnancy proceeded uneventfully.

The dermatologist had to undergo a cesarean section. In the delivery room, the circulating nurse noted on the chart that the amniotic fluid was clear. The obstetrician made a handwritten note on the margin of the delivery report that there was no meconium present. An intern at the neonatal intensive care unit where the child was transferred after his cesarean delivery noted that meconium was present.

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A fourteen-year-old plaintiff, by and with her father, sues the hospital and physician who treated her at birth and for a period thereafter for injuries sustained in the first weeks of her life. Only two pounds, eight ounces at birth, she is today a healthy teenager with an above-average I.Q.; however, she is totally blind (blindness) as a result of retrolental fibroplasia (RLF) disease, which plaintiffs argue was caused by the administration of excessive amounts of oxygen over her first thirteen days (birth injury or birth injury accident). The complaint alleges medical malpracticeand lack of informed consent.

Up until the mid-1950’s it was accepted medical practice to administer quite liberal doses of oxygen to premature infants to prevent death or brain damage. Research of this period ultimately showed, however, that prolonged and high concentrations of oxygen in an incubator (over 50%) led to the certain development of RLF. Thus, by the time of plaintiff’s birth, in May of 1970, it was well-established that oxygen should only be applied to counteract respiratory problems and cyanosis in premature infants, as exhibited by plaintiff, and then only at relatively low percentage-volumes and for only brief periods.

A New York Injury Lawyer said at trial, evidence showed that plaintiff was subjected to concentrations of oxygen between 31-40% over a thirteen-day period. This proof permitted a finding, based also upon the opinion of plaintiff’s expert, that this continuous use of oxygen caused her RLF. However, there was also an abundance of evidence that without any oxygen, plaintiff would have died or suffered brain damage.

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