Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

Re: Liability for Injured Dog

You are only liable if you did something negligently. For example, if the law requires you to put the machine on level ground and you put it on a slope, you would be liable *if* the accident would not have happened had the machine been on level ground.

It seems to me that the dog's owner may be partially -- or even entirely -- responsible. He assumed the machine was stable enough that the dog couldn't knock it over, but his assumption may not have been reasonable. Whether it was reasonable will depend upon several factors, but the most important is likely to be the strength of the dog. (It's more reasonable to believe a toy poodle can't tip the machine over than to believe the same of a great Dane.)

If you are both partially at fault then each of you is responsible for part of the damage. A jury would have to decide how much fault each of you bears.

Assuming you are liable, the amount of your liability is limited to the amount reasonably necessary to put the plaintiff back in the position he was in before the accident.

The position this man was in before the accident included having his dog in (I presume) good health and uninjured.

It was reasonable for the owner to pay for veterinary care for the dog, and if you are at fault you must pay those bills unless you can show that the vet performed unnecessary services or charged too much.

The fact that the vet bills cost more than the dog is "worth" is beside the point. Dog owners are not expected to treat their pets like some sort of inanimate objects that can be easily replaced. They have relationships with their dogs and the law recognizes their interest in preserving those relationships. I cannot imagine any court saying that it was unreasonable for this man to pay a vet to treat his dog and that, instead, the only reasonable thing for him to do was to let the dog die or be maimed. And you won't win any sympathy if you try to make that argument in court.

If you actually have the required insurance and it covers this type of accident, you should only be liable for the deductible; call the insurer right away and tell them what happened. If you have no insurance, you will have to pay from your own pocket.

Re: Liability for Injured Dog

Since you have insurance, turn the claim over to them, with instructions to fight this vigorously 'on principle'. Why should you pay money for something the owner himself caused?