I guess the moral of this story is to make sure your property is safe for people who might come to try to convert you.
Apparently, the Jehovah’s Witness disregarded the “Private- Keep Out” sign and was attacked by Shit For Brains, the homeowner’s four year old ram. As a result, “his capacity to enjoy life has permanently diminished,” and to make up for this, he sued the homeowners and the Jehovah’s Witness congregation for not instructing him on how to safely preach the gospel. He has gotten an “undisclosed settlement.”
I was under the impression that Jehovah’s Witnesses believed it wrong to sue. I guess you learn something new every day.
The idea that someone might come, uninvited, past my fence and warning sign and then sue me for injuries incurred in trespassing is somewhat chilling. Something keeps telling me that this isn’t right.
I remember a while back reading of a thief who was injured breaking into someone’s house and successfully sued the homeowners. Am I imagining things, or does anyone else remember this?
So, what do you guys think? In your opinion, was the Jehovah’s Witness right to sue?
From what I can remember, he was trying to break into the house through a sunroof in the kitchen, fell through, and cut himself on a knife that was sitting on a cutting board.
This sucks though, you would assume that a “No Trespassing” sign would eliminate all liability if somebody decided to ignore it and in doing so was injured in the process. I can’t believe that really went all the way to court.
-foxy
I currently have my home on the market. The computer listing states that it is shown by appointment only because of a “protective dog”. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve come home and had messages from agents that said if they didn’t hear back from me they’d just go ahead and show it! I had to put a sign on the door that simply told them they WOULD be bitten if they entered the home when I wasn’t there and I would NOT be liable for an agents own stupidity or illiteracy. Granted, my dog would only probably lick them to death, but I’m not taking any chances.
This is one of my biggest pet peeves. we have three big dogs who at any given moment might be out in our fenced yard. Our yard is big, and part of it is hidden from view. Even if it looks like the dogs aren’t in the yard, they might be out hiding in the back. A few years ago, Gandy got maced by a delivery guy who had opened up the gate to our yard. I put up “KEEP OUT” and “BEWARE OF DOG” signs.
I called the company this guy worked for and yelled about my dog getting maced, and they said they would write a note for the drivers to come to our front door (not within our fenced yard) and ring the bell first. Now, my dogs have not attacked anyone and they aren’t dangerous, but I don’t want evey dumbass person who thinks they need to be inside my gate to come in. They might not close the gate properly and my dogs could get out and get hit by a car.
So, despite the signs, I still have two groups of people who have attempted to get inside the gate - UPS drivers and JWs. Imagine my anger when one Saturday morning I saw a JW woman and her small children reaching for my gate latch! There are three big dogs in there, and even if they don’t attack, this woman had no way of knowing that! After I told her how dangerous it would be if she had opened the gate, I told her I was not interested in the least in her religion. But how stupid can one be? Risking your children to spread the word? What if my dogs were dangerous? I mean I have it posted to KEEP OUT and BEWARE OF DOG, she just ignored it.
**Scenario: imagine I had a battery of lasers (Dr Evil: "My “LASERS” ") on the roof of my house. Any person entering my border fence would trigger my “LASERS”, which would fire up to slice-'n-dice the intruder. Take that!
Being a thoughtful law-abiding citizen, I of course erect a large warning sign on my gate (No Trespassers! Beware of death-dealing “LASER”!)
No problem with that? You’re fine with the concept that my sign eliminates all responsibility for injury inflicted by my “LASER”? Good.
Now imagine the kid next door loses his football over my fence. He comes around to ask for it back. At the same time, the newly-arrived immigrant on my street decides to visit me and introduce herself. But she cannot read English yet and the young kid is too young to figure out what a “LASER” is. They both happily enter my property.
BZAP!
Would you still agree that my Large Warning Sign should grant me immunity?
Now subsitute my death-dealing laser with a large, viscious dog, a row of spikes, or a booby-trap. Substitute the illerate characters in my story with English-speaking adults.
Except now it’s night time and my warning sign is obscured.
I’m still free from liability aren’t I? After all, it’s MY property and I can do what I like to protect it , regardless of the risk to the public, right?
Right?
–
Oh, please remember that plaintiff “being allowed” to SUE is different to them WINNING a case before the courts.
1ofthegulls’s story reminds me of when I was house-hunting once. I was at the house waiting for the realtor to arrive. I was going to open the gate and have a look in the back yard, but it was clear that the dog back there would eat me alive. When the realtor arrived, we went in the front, looked around, then went into the back yard from the house. The dog assumed that if we had been in the house then we must be OK, and was very friendly.
BTW, the one about the burglar suing the homeowner for falling through a skylight? Urban Legend. At least in that well-known format. It was originally abour a student and his school, IIRC, that had painted over the skylight so he could not tell it apart from the rest of the roof.
Though I do recall something legit about a burglar suing because he was injured by a booby-trap. I’ll see if I can find that. (It’s an old news report, I remember it on the radio and TV when I was a kid visiting my grandma near Detroit – my parents got into quite a debate over the story.)
A former co-worker was fined for booby-trapping her car.
Here in Ohio, if someone comes into my yard and gets bit by my dog, I have to pay for his medical bills and possibly pain and suffering, depending on the circumstances. Doesn’t matter if he’s the cable guy or a stranger trying to convert me to Satanism. We have strict liability laws with regard to dogs here.
Now in regards to booby trapping your house. Can’t do it. The only time you can legally use lethal force against someone is if you fear for your life. And it has to be an imminent fear, meaning you have to fear for your life at the time you shoot him/her. In other words, don’t shoot an intruder in the back. (Though I have a hard time believing a jury would convict anyone of shooting a strange man in their house, but that’s beside the point.)
Short answer: Using lethal force to protect your body (or your child’s body or even your neighbor’s body) is okay. Using lethal force to protect your GameCube (or your Monet) is not.
Well, hell that would be news! “Tonight, Ayn Rand’s corpse rose from the grave and and attacked several local Jehovah’s Witnesses. [Insert clip of corpse staggering toward camera, growling] We’ll here from the survivors, tonight at eleven. Only here on Action Six Newswatch.”
This actually happened to my mother. She had a big, gentle Great Dane named Thor. (Big lovable mutt who loved kids.) The Little Bastard from next door used to sneak into her yard when she had him tied up, and poke and beat Thor with a stick. Finally, one day, Thor had enough. He took one of his huge paws, swatted the kid to the ground, and held him down with one foot until Little Bastard’s howls of fear brought people running.
The child was completely unharmed except for where Thor’s claws had scratched his skin. Little Bastard even confessed what he had done, but the hysterical parents couldn’t believe what that “vicious brute” had done to their “precious angel” and threatened to sue my parents unless they put the dog down. Regretfully, they did, and ended up only having to pay the medical costs. (They actually called an ambulance, so it was a bit pricey.)
See this is why I will NEVER own a dog. Something like this could happen and even though it was clearly the Little Bastard’s fault, his parents refused to believe their precious baby would do something like that. It is parents like that who make me wanna hurl chunks of oh, I dunno, rotten cow feces or something, at their homes. It’s a shame your mother had to put her beloved dog down because of the actions of one little bastard.
