Overview
 Michigan holds the owner
of a dog strictly liable for dog bites to a human being that were not provoked, provided
that if the incident happened upon the dog owner's property the victim was not a trespasser or there to do something unlawful or criminal. Liability also can be based upon scienter, negligence, negligence per se and other grounds such as battery. (See Legal Rights of Dog Bite Victims in the USA.)
The dog bite statute, Mich. Comp. Laws Ann., sec. 287.351, is as follows:
287.351 Person bitten by dog; liability
of owner.
Sec. 1. (1) If a dog bites
a person, without provocation while the person is on public property, or
lawfully on private property, including the property of the owner of the
dog, the owner of the dog shall be liable for any damages suffered by the
person bitten, regardless of the former viciousness of the dog or the owner's
knowledge of such viciousness.
(2) A person is lawfully
on the private property of the owner of the dog within the meaning of this
act if the person is on the owner's property in the performance of any
duty imposed upon him or her by the laws of this state or by the laws or
postal regulations of the United States, or if the person is on the owner's
property as an invitee or licensee of the person lawfully in possession
of the property unless said person has gained lawful entry upon the premises
for the purpose of an unlawful or criminal act.
Dog owner s are limited to the defenses enumerated in the statute, namely that the plaintiff provoked the dog or the plaintiff was a trespasser at the time of the incident. Nicholes v. Lorenz (Mich. 1976), 237 N.W.2d 468.
Litigation forms and other materials for attorneys
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