St. Germain v. Dutchess Co. Agricultural Society

In St. Germain v. Dutchess Co. Agricultural Society (274 A.D.2d 146 [2000]), the Second Department, citing Schwartz, expanded the negligence theory of liability for animal owners to include not only property owners but also animal handlers. St. Germain dealt with a negligence claim by plaintiffs who were trampled by a cow, with no known vicious propensities, which broke free from its handler and ran amongst fair goers as it was being led from an exercise area to a barn at the Dutchess County Fair. The Second Department found that the animal owners and handlers "were negligent in failing to prevent the harm allegedly caused by the Pulvers' heifer. Specifically, the defendants walked this heifer, which weighed about 1,000 pounds, along the same path used by fair goers when they knew or should have known that heifers are generally at risk to be 'spooked' and bolt from their handler." ( St. Germain v. Dutchess Co. Agricultural Society, 274 A.D.2d 146, 149-150.) In finding a triable issue of fact precluding summary judgment to defendants, the Second Department held that "it is not necessary that a [cow] should be vicious to make the owner responsible for injury done by [it] through the owner's negligence" ( St. Germaine v. Dutchess Co. Agricultural Society, 274.)