Family Files Suit after Man Killed in Dog Attack
A Florida family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of an 83-year-old man that was attacked and killed by a pit bull. According to the report, on tcpalm.com, 83-year-old Robert J. Klatch was operating a golf cart when his Shih Tzu dog was attacked by a pit bull. Klatch tried to save his dog but the pit bull threw him from the golf cart and bit him.
According to the lawsuit, Harvey and Jane Cutler’s pit bull dog was not on a leash. Klatch’s attorney stated that Klatch’s health began to decline as a result of complications from the fall he suffered. The wrongful death lawsuit also names the Residents’ Association in the neighborhood where the attack took place and the management company for the subdivision as defendants due to their failure to maintain limits on dog weight and leash laws. The insurance companies representing the pit bull’s owners are also named as defendants because they did not pay for Klatch’s medical bills after the attack.
A dog attack is not always a foreseeable incident in any situation. A dog’s owners may believe their dog is well-behaved and is not the type to attack a person or other animal but it is a possibility. If the dog is not bred to attack or treated poorly, which would result in instinctual attacks, there is no way of knowing if the dog has an aggressive streak or not. Therefore, it is always very hard to predict if a dog will attack or not. In this incident, the owners could still be held at fault since their dog was not on a leash. If there are leash laws that specifically state that a dog should remain on a leash, the owners could be held accountable.
