GEORGIA -- Hogansville City Council voted Monday to reject an ante litem notice from attorneys representing a woman who said that the city is liable for injuries she sustained when she was attacked by a dog on Sept. 22.
In a letter written by her lawyers to Hogansville Mayor Bill Stankiewicz, Donna Duffy, a 45-year-old Hogansville resident, seeks $250,000 in damages from the city of Hogansville for alleged negligence of a city employee.
Duffy’s letter claims a Hogansville animal control worker stood by while she was being attacked by a neighbor’s dog in front of her home in the 300 block of Maple Street.
According to the incident report from the Hogansville Police Department, officer Larry Harris claims Duffy attempted to pet the dog after he advised her to stay inside her car. He also states that he ran and stopped the attack.
Duffy’s attorneys said she suffered puncture wounds to her wrist, elbow and upper arm, as well as scrapes and bruises from being tackled by the dog. The letter said that she sought and is seeking medical treatment for injuries, pain, suffering, trauma, emotional and mental injury, and also attorney’s fees. Her letter also included photographs of her injuries.
According to her account of the incident detailed in the letter, Harris advised her that he knew the dog and said, “It won’t hurt you.” The letter also stated that Harris “froze” while Duffy was being attacked and did nothing to stop it, even though he held a tranquilizer gun in his hand at the time.
Duffy’s lawyer writes that the attack was stopped by another resident at the scene.
Harris’ written narrative included in the police report of the incident offers a stark contrast to Duffy’s account.
The officer said he arrived to the home where a resident called and reported that the dog, which he described as a “large black lab mix,” would not allow him and two women out of the house. Harris stated that he distracted the dog so that the three people could get into their cars in front of the home.
He claims that all three were able to get into their vehicles and he then advised them that they could leave and he would deal with the dog. Harris wrote that he went to his vehicle to prepare his dart gun.
“While preparing the dart, I notice that one of the females, Donna Duffy, was getting out of the car in what appeared to be an effort to pet the dog,” said Harris in his written narrative. “I advised Duffy to stay in the car, but she decided to pet the dog anyway.”
Harris’ report then states that Duffy approached the dog and was knocked to the ground and bitten on the arm.
“I ran over to the victim and knocked the dog off Duffy and then sprayed it with pepper spray, causing the dog to retreat,” wrote Harris.
Harris claims that the dog ran away after being shot with a tranquilizer dart. The report also states that the dog was picked up the next day and taken to LaGrange Animal Shelter for quarantine.
“The dog was taken to our shelter and held for almost 20 days,” said Chris Bussey, director of the LaGrange Animal Shelter.
Bussey said that state law requires the shelter to hold animals for 10 days in order to observe any signs of rabies or other health problems. After the 10-day holding period, pet owners are allowed to come to the shelter and take their dog home.
“We kept the dog, but the owner never came to pick it up,” said Bussey. “Due to it being involved with a bite case, we had to euthanize it after 20 days.”
Following the vote by the City Council to reject the ante litem notice, the case is now pending litigation.
“The state of Georgia requires that before you sue a municipality, you have to submit an ante litem notice,” said Stankiewicz, Hogansville mayor. “That means, ‘before litigation.’ The whole idea is to try to avoid lawsuits and ask for a settlement.”
Duffy could not be reached for comment, while the owner of the dog and the resident who reported the initial incident to Hogansville Animal Control refused to comment on the case.
(LaGrange Daily News - Apr 9, 2015)
No comments:
Post a Comment