Here’s the situation. Last Monday, the meter reader comes by and asks my wife if he could go through the house as he has trouble getting the gate open. Well with 2 barking dogs and a 2 year old, my wife asks him to use the other gate I recently installed. When he left, he didn’t get the new gate latched. My wife called and asked that they be sure to latch the gate next time. Two days later the meter reader was out again and again didn’t latch the gate. The dogs got loose and we were ticketed for dogs at large.
Any advice is appreciated (and I of course understand the usual disclaimers), but since this is General Questions:
What (if any) recourse do we have against the electric company for leaving the gate open?
Would saying that the meter reader left the gate open be a vaild defense in court? (This is a small town city court)
You might try explaining the situation to the electric company, followed by something along the lines of: “My outrage will of couse abate considerably if I can get a statement from the meter reader confessing his sins and requesting mercy for me.”
Your plan in court is to apologize for the dog problem, swear it will never happen again, show the judge this statement and beg for forgiveness (and a waiver of the fine).
IANAL, but: my dad is the mayor of a very small town. He has a copy of the town code at home, and I’ve skimmed it. There are all sorts of poorly-written statutes that you can be ticketed for.
Call up your town clerk and ask to come by and read the statute, or if you don’t have time, ask them to fax or e-mail you the text of the statute under which you were cited. If the language states that “the owner shall be responsible for a dog or dogs… and shall be liable” then you’re pretty much done in. It’s your dog, therefore you are responsible. You can argue before the judge (or at the next town meeting!) that the statute does not foresee all possible circumstances and lobby for it to be amended, and for your ticket to be thrown out. In this first case, you might be able to argue that since the meter man was the person with “custody” of the dogs at the time, then he bears responsibility as the owner.
If the language states that “the person responsible for releasing a dog or dogs… shall be liable” then you can state your case clearly. The state (or city in this case) cannot prove that you were responsible for releasing the dog (since you weren’t, and they don’t have any witness to say who released the dog). Since you made a good faith effort to comply, and asked the meter man to comply on your behalf while he was on your property, he should bear responsibility.
I think a friendly judge with good sense will hear you out; but show him the respect of reading the statute so you can at least argue your case on its merits, rather than throwing yourself on the mercy of the court. He probably gets a lot of the latter, and wishes he heard more of the former.
Why would the electric company voluntarily supply evidence that could expose them to a lawsuit? I’m sure they would rather risk the consequences of a customer’s “outrage”; what are they going to do, close their account and start burning candles?
Why was the meter reader there twice in one week? Maybe he was being a bit vindicative. Put a spring or other closer on your gate along with some kind of an automatic latch, document these modifications and show the judge and ask for mercy.
The meter is actually owned by the power company and all meter readers are supposed to have clear access (right of way) to the meter. The agreement of service signed when you turned your power on will clearly state that you agree to provide access to the meter and lines whenever necessary.
If the meter reader perceives your dogs to be a threat or arbitrarily decides your gate is an “obstruction” to his duties, you could be asked to leave the gate open and secure your dogs away from the path to the meter. Don’t antagonize them- meter readers are often bitten by dogs and can make your life difficult if they decide you or your beloved pets are in any way hampering their progress while on the job-
You can request a meter reading schedule- then you will know which days your lawn will be invaded by careless or unkind meter readers.
Things tend to be a bit more laid back in a small town. People know each other and can see the advantage in behaving reasonably.
There’s no need to ask for a signed and notarized admission of responsibility for letting the dogs out. It could simply be a statement to the effect that “She was kind enough to give me access through the house, and yes, there may have been some ensuing problem with closing the gate.”
Anecdote, off topic. But maybe it will shed some light.
A friend and I once came across 2 beautiful, well trained and groomed Rottweilers walking down a city street with no humans. We knew something was up, and casually started to follow and catch up with the dogs. Before we did that, they found a cat sitting out in front of a house. They begin to tear this cat apart right in front of its owners, including a little girl. The owners were able to save the cat’s life, but just barely (and at much expense, as we learned later). My friend and I were still about a block and 1/2 away, so (and there was much ethical debate on this) we did not get involved in the cat rescue/ dog fight. The dogs continued on their merry way, and we continued to follow them and catch up with them a few blocks down the road. They were very well trained and sat happily as we held them by the collar, got the phone number of the owners off the tags, and called to let the owner know we had her dogs. We never told her about the cat. (Again, much ethical debate ensued.) She probably never realized that her beautiful, well behaved pets quickly reverted to wild cat-killing behavior when unsupervised.
The moral of this story might be that, had your dogs caused similar damage and pain while they were loose, you probably would not hold yourself blameless. Pet ownership is a huge responsibility, and while you did receive poor service from the meter maid, you should take the responibility to ensure your dogs are not loose unsupervised.
Meter readers can (and do) often read meters from the street with binoculars if the meter is visible.
We had a similar problem and after talking with the power company they agreed to read our meter from the street with binoculars if we had the dogs out or the gates locked.
In a previous job I worked for a company that made software for power companies. This type of reading is not uncommon in rural areas, houses with dogs, etc. You just have to make sure that the meter can be seen (and read) from somewhere on the street.
Thanks for the replies everyone. As far as reading the meter, I’ve contacted the electric company, and they sent me information about reading the meter myself, and calling in the reading. So that at least should limit the problems there.
I’m also installing a spring on the gate so that it will remain closed even if unlatched.
The electric company said that the reason that they were out twice that week was because one time was for reading the meter, and the other was for replacing it.
And the owners of the cat, and presumably parents of the little girl, will never know there were witnesses to this act, and might be able to bring suit against the dog owners? And if there is a next time and the next victim is a child, what then?
Just an update if anyone cares. We had our court date the other night. We explained what happened, and the judge and prosecuting attourney were sympathetic. The prosecutor mentioned that the same thing happened to her, except it was her three year old that got out. The upshot is that if we manage to keep the dogs in for 90 days, the ticket goes away. Of course if they do get out, we’ll get to do it and the new ticket.
I want to thank everyone for their advice and concern. Somebody even sent me an email with good advice, unfortunately by the time I got to it after wading through all the spam, I figured it was too late for a reply. But I did appreciate it.