Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

Re: Am I liable if a neighbor's dog dies in my yard?

Your message says nothing about the cause of death, and that is a rather important detail. If the dog simply died of exposure or of natural causes and not because of anything you did, then the fact that he was on your property does not make you liable. After all, he would have died the same way had he been on someone else's nearby property instead.

If there was some defect in your fence which enabled the dog to get in but prevented him from leaving then your neighbor just might have a case. I think you should win under such facts because it is your neighbor's job to keep his dog on his property. You are not obligated to prevent other people's dogs from entering your yard and you are allowed to build a fence which will prevent animals in your own yard from escaping, so you should be OK. Letting the dog get away was the neighbor's fault, and the law does not expect the rest of us to constantly be checking to see if other people's pets have become trapped inside our fences.

The problem is that it may appear you did something wrong even if you didn't. Were there bite marks on the body (perhaps from some other animal that found it before you did)? Even if your dogs did not kill the mini-pinscher it may look like they did and the neighbor might sue you on that basis. He would still have the burden of proof, but if it looks like your dogs are responsible the judge or jury might not believe your story and could rule in his favor.

Good luck.