Question for the DU legal minds...SDG&E killed my dog

[MindPilot]

The meter reader let my dog out and he got hit by car. Does San Diego Gas & Electric have any liability?

I figure they are the ones who put the meter at the back of the house, they are the ones who still in the age of cellular & satellite communications use meters that need a human reader.

But for their actions, my dog would still be alive.

Do I have standing to sue?

[Mr Rabble]

1. Oh god thats horrible. My condolences.

[nickyt]

2. Not a lawyer, but so very sorry for your loss. n/t

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

3. I would definitely say yes.

People have won cases like this before, but it's not much. Usually the price of a new puppy and a couple hundred for suffering. I'd still pursue it though. I'm really sorry about your dog. I know how it feels to lose a pet. I couldn't imagine losing one over the meter's guy stupidity. I'd call my lawyer.

[shadowknows69]

4. So sorry for your loss Mindpilot

I'd at least get a lawyer to check it out. Maybe a threat will get a settlement. Tell them you'll settle for free power for 5 years.

[keepCAblue]

5. I'm no lawyer, but I believe they are liable

We had a similar situation with Comcast. Even though we're not a Comcast customer, they routinely used our backyard to access a utility pole that sits in the back corner of our yard to service their cable lines. One day I heard my dog (a large black lab mix) barking out back, looked out the window and saw her chasing the Comcast guy around the tree. He was kicking at her with his steel-toed boots. I ran out and told him to get off our property--told him he could access the utility pole from one of the other three yards that butts up against to our. Made several phone calls of complaint to Comcast and never got any resolution (or even a call back from the elusive "supervisor" who I was told I had to talk to)

A month later, again, same situation. Only this time I called the San Jose PD and told them something to the effect of, "I've got a Comcast guy in my backyard trespassing and if he does ANYTHING to my dog I'm going to shoot him." The police arrived very quickly.

To my surprise, the officer who responded came down hard on the Comcast guy for not having gained permission to enter our private property beforehand and told them to leave. The officer filed an incident report citing that, if any future trespassings occur, that Comcast would arrested for trespass. The officer on the scene advised the Comcast guy that if any harm should ever come to our dog as a result of their entering our property without permission, they would be fully liable for said actions.

If I were you, I'd call some lawyers to see if you can interest one in handling your case. If not, you can take your utility company to small claims court for any damages (vet bills, pain and suffering, etc.)

[Sammy Pepys]

6. My natural inclination would be to...

...go after the person who hit your dog with his/her car. I'm not a lwyer, but it seems like that's where your strongest case would be.

And I'm not familiar with cases like this, but exactly what kind of outcome are you expecting from this if you are able to sue?

[Hosnon]

7. The outcome would be damages: value of dog. nt

[Sammy Pepys]

10. And what would that be? n/t

....

[Hosnon]

29. I dunno - but it would probably be based on market value. nt

[Divernan]

12. Under leash laws, it's owner's responsibility

to keep his/her dog from running on the roadway. No judge will want to tie up a courtroom, judge and jury for a case with such a small dollar value. That's why I suggested the owner try for a pro se action before the district justice/district magistrate, aka small claims court.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

15. Even if the dog was confined in the yard, until a utility guy let him out.

I think by law the dog was reasonably confined.

[keepCAblue]

19. Leash law does not apply here. n/t

[Divernan]

22. It applies as a defense for the driver who hit the dog.

Then it becomes a question of proving who had responsibility for the dog's being out, the meter reader, or the dog's owner. Again you could argue until the cows come home, but the bottom line is that in every civil suit, plaintiff has to prove (1) that someone "did him wrong" (a tort), and (2) that there were legally recoverable damages resulting from that wrong. Here, you're looking at damages probably under $500, and a lawyer would get 30-40% of that plus court costs to file the case. You're not going to find a lawyer willing to handle a case for a fee of $150-200.

[keepCAblue]

25. Except that the driver is not a party to the complaint.

So, again, leash law does not apply here. This is a trespassing/property damage complaint by the home/pet owner against the meter reader. The driver does not enter into the equation.

[Divernan]

28. Nobody's party to any complaint yet. I was responding to

the poster who suggested going after the driver of the car.

[Hosnon]

8. You do have "standing" as it was your property (dog). I'm sure there is

a duty of care that meter readers and the like must exercise when on your premises.

Problem is, you'll only get the value of the dog - lawsuit will most likely cost more. If I was rich I would do it...you may go through this costly legal battle and get a few hundred bucks.

[Divernan]

9. I AM a lawyer and here's some free and practical legal advice.

First of all, I'm sorry about your dog.

With the caveat that case law varies from state to state, generally speaking, all you could recover would be the cost of replacing the dog. The only way this case would have enough value for a lawyer to take it (for a 30-40% contingency fee) would be if it was a purebred, un-neutered champion that you could have bred for valuable puppies. If your dog was a stray you adopted from the local pound or a puppy you bought for a couple of hundred dollars, that's the limit on the value of the case. It would cost you a couple of hundred dollars just to have a lawyer open a file and send a letter for you.

I assume you didn't see the dog get hit by the car, cause if you knew your dog was loose, you would have brought him/her in before the accident. Absent actually seeing the accident, it's not likely you'd get any pain and suffering damages. Even then, I doubt there's precedent for pain and suffering awards re seeing a pet, as opposed to a spouse or child, killed.

The utility company's defense would be that you knew they would come into your yard to read your meter and that your dog was at risk of getting out. The company may have a provision for people who keep their yards locked up to arrange a specific time for meter reading access - such as a particular day of the month. I had such an arrangement with my utility company until they upgraded meters for remote readings. As to your point that they are still using human meter readers, it's a stretch to argue that a utility company should go to the expense of installing such upgrades for all customers simultaneously. For all you know, they may have a long range plan to do this and are already implementing it. It would cost hundreds of dollars in legal fees to you to use discovery to find this out. More importantly, all the utility company's lawyer would have to do is to point out to the court the company's legal right to access their equipment, and a judge would throw the case out on a motion for summary judgment.

What can you do? (1) file a complaint with the public utility commission requesting some policy/procedure be required re notice to property owners who wish to lock their gates. Point out that this could as easily have happened to a small child who could wander out through an open gate.
(2) Send letters to the editors with the same suggestion.
(3) Send a letter to the utility company with a reasonable and specific demand for enough compensation to replace your pet. That would be the cost of the animal plus the cost of neutering/first shots, etc. Tell the company that if they don't send you that amount within 30 days, you will file an action against them pro se (for yourself) and that it will cost them more simply to have an atty. represent them than to send you the amount. Even if they have in house counsel, it will take 2 days of his/her time to deal with this. If they don't send you the money by your deadline, then you follow up by actually filing an action for yourself with the local District Magistrate or whatever they're called in California. In PA, this would cost you less than $50. Even if the utility company doesn't settle with you immediately, they may do so after you file an action.

[keepCAblue]

21. With all due respect...

Pain and suffering extends beyond the trauma of witnessing one's pet (or child) hit and killed by a car. Pain and suffering includes the emotional trauma of dealing with the aftermath of such a tragedy, i.e., emotional grief of losing a family member, making burial arrangements (or disposal of remains, if a pet), etc.

With regard to actual damages, beyond the value of the pet this can also include any vet bills related to the accident, as well as costs of euthanasia and/or cremation or disposal services of the pet's body.

[Divernan]

23. I agree re vet costs, disposal of the body.

but doubt there's any case law re "loss of consortium" with a pet.

And of course before one can recover anything, one must prove negligence on the part of the meter reader. What was the size and color of the dog? Was the gate or fence signed that there was a dog on the property? Had the dog ever escaped the yard before? Was the dog visible to the meter reader? How big was the yard? Lots of landscaping? Was the latch on the gate in good working order? How long after the meter reader was there before the owner found out the dog was missing? Was the owner home at the time? How often did he check on the dog? Might anyone else have left the gate open? Etc., etc. IF some lawyer took this case (maybe some dog-loving atty. who would do this for free), this thing could drag out for many months or even years. That's a lot of stress and emotional wear and tear on the dog owner, and everyone else involved. I hope that the owner can get a reasonable settlement from the utility company simply representing himself.

I've done a god bit of pro bono work for elderly and poor people. I know it's really hard to find lawyers who will do pro bono work. For those who will, there are tons of poor people who desperately need pro bono legal help with child support, abuse situations, landlord-tenant disputes, health insurance coverage questions, etc. These can be life or death situations. My cases involved situations like forcing a slumlord to quickly correct a life-threatening, building code violation re gas heating; forcing a health insurer to quickly approve a specialist to perform surgery on a cancer patient (where time was of the essence), and getting a two year old little boy away from his ex-con mother & her boyfriend who were renting him out to pedophiles in Florida, and out of the dangerous "care" of the Florida "child protection" agency which had just about been conned into returning the little boy to his mother, and safely back to some normal members of his family in another state. (They got him into therapy quickly and he seems to have recovered from the horror of his early years.) None of these matters involved a trial, or even formally filing a complaint or lawsuit. They involved a lot of jawboning on the phone and threatening to bring actions before state agencies. Lawsuits drag on for years and I always tell people to stay out of court and away from juries if at all possible.

[mtnester]

11. Did that person also leave ANY of your property (besides your pet)

unsecured? That would be another issue too.

Unfortunately, in 99.999% of the cases, you cannot sue for pain and suffering relating to the death of a pet. However, you do have recourse on the monetary value of the animal.

Sounds cold, but it is true.

[Branjor]

13. I am so sorry....

Deepest sympathy to you.

Poor little doggie.

[Marnieworld]

14. So sorry for your loss

:hug: I would be devastated and enraged too. So sorry.

[geek tragedy]

16. I'm very sorry for your loss. I have two cats, and no amount of money

could replace my babies.

As far as legal stuff is concerned, it's really a matter of local California law. My only legal advice would be to make sure you're getting legal advice from someone licensed to practice in California.

[mnhtnbb]

17. So sorry for your loss, MindPilot. My beloved Honey dog was hit

by a car 17 years ago when my husband let her outside and didn't go with her.

Divernan seemed to have some good suggestions. Hope you can get something from SDG&E.

Edit spelling

[Vidar]

18. I'm very sorry.

[Red Right and BLUE]

20. Oh my god.

I don't know what I would ever ever do. I am so sorry.

:hug:

[Vadem]

24. I'm so sorry for your loss! I have my doggie babies, too, and...

I have raised hell with the different service people for leaving my gates open; in fact, my dogs got out of my yard because of idiot service people who left the gates wide open and they were walking down the busy street, in the middle of the street,and here I am in my bathrobe running down a public street to collect my babies! I didn't give a damn! My only objective was to get my babies back safe and sound!

I'm so sorry for the loss of your baby!


People are stupid idiots!

[Beaverhausen]

26. I'm so sorry. This same thing just happened to friends of mine

it was the gardeners who opened the gate and let the dog out. Within a minute the dog was hit by a car and killed - all witnessed by their 7 year old daughter.

I think they are trying to get the gardeners to pay them something.

[GreenPartyVoter]

27. I am so sorry honey! *hugs*

[MindPilot]

30. Thanks to all of you for you kind words, advice and sympathy

The lawyers we talked with all said essentially the same thing. A pet is property and absent some serious financial connection, like if it were a service animal with an extensive investment in training or was in some way generating income like breeding, there simply isn't enough there to pay for a suit.

As it turns out though, SDG&E has a whole insurance claim process in place to deal with this type of incident. We've been given a claim number and assured we'll be hearing from one of their attorneys in a day or so.

The dog originally was given to us, he was a little over a year old, and the county animal shelter took care of all the cremation and disposal expenses. The actual financial losses are limited to the cost of adopting a new dog--about $70 at the county shelter--and a half-day off work to deal with it.

More than money what I really want to see happen is that SDG&E install remotely readable meters so this doesn't happen so much that they have to have a process to deal with it.

Thanks again to everyone!