Stray dog bite

Let's imagine the hypothesis in which a dog attacks a person and it comes to bite. When it can be established who the owner of a dog is or who the person exercising supervision over the animal is, he is liable to the victim as a result of this bite for all property and non-property damages that are a direct consequence of the tort.

However, what happens when the dog is homeless?

In the event of a stray dog bite, the municipality where the relevant tort occurred will most often be liable. According to Art. 49 of the Obligations and Contracts Act (OCA), the person who has assigned another person to perform some work is liable for the damages caused by him during or in connection with the performance of this work. In other words, the liability under Art. 49 OCA arises for the person who assigned the work to another.

This liability is for the wrongful acts of others. For the engagement it is necessary to establish:

– the damages suffered by the victim,

– which are the result of unlawful conduct by a person to whom the work was assigned,

– through actions that constitute its performance, or through inactions to fulfill obligations that arise from the law, from technical and other rules or from the nature of the work, i.e. they appear to be caused during or on the occasion of the performance of the assigned work.

The fault of the direct causer is presumed until proven otherwise. An important feature is that the contracting authority cannot be exempted from liability because it cannot be established who specifically caused the damage. The municipality is liable for damage from a stray dog bite, as a contracting authority under Art. 49 of Civil Code, because it concerns obligations specified by law that the municipality has assigned to a municipal enterprise it has established, which it has not fulfilled, as a result of which bodily harm was caused as a result of a bite.

If it did not exercise control over the stray (feral) dog, the municipality acted unlawfully because it failed to fulfill its obligations under the Animal Protection Act. For the purposes of the law, „feral“ is any free-living dog, with the exception of domestic breeds. Therefore, this includes those that are lost or abandoned by their owners, as well as those that do not live in a home or other specially designated place for them. The legal requirement is that these animals be captured and temporarily housed in a municipal shelter.

How should the municipality take care of stray dogs?

To carry out this activity, municipalities establish enterprises (e.g. "Ekoravnovesie") or sign contracts with existing companies, whose functions are defined by internal rules. For the activities of these enterprises and the effective performance of the functions assigned to them by the relevant workers and employees, respectively for their failure to perform them, the municipality, as a legal entity, is responsible on the basis of the assignment of its legally established obligations.

The fact that dogs are under the supervision and care of municipalities means that through the measures they take, they should guarantee their safe behavior towards people, regardless of the type of these measures (whether by placing them in an isolator or by returning them to their places). The measures that the law requires to be taken should be effective, not illusory, they must objectively lead to the goal of the regulations - to reduce to a minimum the number of stray dogs roaming in cities, since their free presence in urban environments threatens the health and lives of people.

It does not matter whether the stray dog is malicious or acts aggressively, but rather that the municipality, through its bodies, failed to properly fulfill its legal obligations for supervision and prevention of bites. The liability for the tort in this case arises from the fact that the actions that the person was obliged to take were not taken and the bite occurred.

According to the provisions of Art. 40 and Art. 41 of the Animal Protection Act, the municipal authorities are obliged to take care of stray dogs and hence the respective municipality, to whose structure the services in question belong, has the obligation to take care of these animals.

According to Art. 47, para. 3 of the LZZ, stray dogs are marked and placed in temporary municipal shelters or returned to the places from which they were taken, such dogs being under the supervision and care of the municipality. The norm of Art. 40, para. 2 of the LZZ obliges the mayor of the municipality to organize the implementation of programs to control the population of stray dogs, such stray animals being temporarily placed in municipal shelters so that they do not bite people.