Over in GQ, there is a question about the liability associated with giving a dog away that previously bit someone and whether the time since it’s last incident matters in a disclosure.
I had a weirder variant of this happen to me recently that was an awkward and strange mistake. I was walking my dog down the street and I found an otherwise dirty and sad looking dog camped out in front of a house about three blocks away. My immediate thought was that this dog must have gotten loose and belonged to the owners of the house in question, which was a very expensive home. The dog was a cocker spaniel and was otherwise wagging its tail and was very friendly to my dog. So, I knocked on the door, and a guy answered. As soon as he opened the door, this random dog hauled ass inside past him, got dirt all over the nice rug in the entry way of this home and chased a cat around their house causing large amounts of mayhem. Eventually the guy’s wife and kids chased the dog down. Fortunately, no permanent damage was done, and while these were not the owners of the dog, they did know whose dog it was and said they would take it over there.
I felt really bad that the dog had charged in like that, especially give that it had been otherwise friendly with my dog and didn’t seem like a threat. It got me to wondering, would I have been liable had the dog charged in and mauled a toddler, wrecked a priceless vase, etc? I’m not sure there is a factual answer, but let’s assume a worst case scenario where a toddler gets mauled to death, and neither the real owner of the dog, nor I, had any prior knowledge the dog would do that, except that had I not knocked on this door, the event might never have happened. Can I be held responsible in any way for this?