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TRENTON, N.J. (Legal Newsline) – A woman who sustained injuries trying to rescue her neighbors' dog from a canal can’t sue its owners, the New Jersey Supreme Court recently ruled.
The court decided June 13 to affirm the rescue doctrine doesn’t apply to dogs. It can only be used to sue over the rescue of a human or, in an expansion announced by the court in its opinion, acts that appear to be intended to protect property but are still reasonable measures to protect a human life.
“Notwithstanding the strong emotional attachment people may have to dogs, cats, and other domesticated animals, or the great significance some may attribute to family heirlooms, or works of art generally considered as irreplaceable parts of our cultural history, sound public policy cannot sanction expanding the rescue doctrine to imbue property with the same status and dignity uniquely conferred upon a human life,” the court wrote.
Ann Samolyk jumped into the canal in Forked River, a bayfront community in Lacey Township, on July 13, 2017. A dog belonging to Ilona and Robert DeStafanis had either jumped or fallen into the water.
Samolyk wasn’t successful, as the defendants’ son and a friend removed him without injury. But Samolyk was found unconscious on a floating dock and suffered neurological and cognitive injuries.
Her husband John sued in a case that asked the court to expand the rescue doctrine to include “property” like dogs.
“After reviewing the noble principles that infuse the public policy underpinning this cause of action, we decline to consider property, in whatever form, to be equally entitled to the unique value and protection we bestow on a human life,” the decision says.
It expands the doctrine to include property that shields human life, like a neighbor who sees a house on fire then attempts to rescue anyone inside without knowing if anyone is inside. If that fire was negligently started, the neighbor could have a cause of action under the rescue doctrine, the decision says.
In the case of the dog, had Ann been running to save a child from jumping in the canal to save the dog, she would have had a cause of action.