JUDY O'STEEN, INDIVIDUALLY, ET AL., APPELLANTS,
v.
ALFRED G. KEMMERER, TRUSTEE, APPELLEE

Fla. 1st DCA | 1977-04-07
No. BB-444
MILLS, J., concurs., JOPLING, WALLACE, Associate Judge, dissents.
344 So. 2d 313 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (1977) Negative Treatment
Cited by 12 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

In this negligence case, the court affirmed dismissal of a complaint alleging that a property owner should be liable for injuries caused by wild monkeys kept on his property by an employee, which escaped and attacked the plaintiffs on their own property. The court held that an owner cannot be held liable for wild animals negligently maintained by an occupant absent some interest or relationship between the owner and the animals.


Holding

No. The court affirmed the dismissal of the complaint, holding that an owner of real property cannot be held liable for damages sustained on another's property resulting from wild animals negligently maintained by an occupant-agent or employee, absent some interest or relationship between the property owner and the wild animals.


Headnotes

[1] A property owner is not liable for damages sustained on the property of another as a result of wild animals negligently maintained on the former's property by an occupant…

[2] A property owner may be held accountable for damages sustained on their property as a result of a vicious animal kept on the property by another with the property owner's…

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Key Quotes

“May liability be imposed upon an owner of real property for damages sustained on the property of another as a result of wild animals negligently maintained on the former's property by an occupant who is either an agent or employee of the property owner in the absence of some interest or relationship between the property owner and the wild animals or other dangerous instrumentality?”

This statement articulates the precise legal question presented to the court.

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Facts & Procedural History

Plaintiff Judy O'Steen and other plaintiffs were attacked and bitten by wild monkeys that escaped from property owned by defendant Kemmerer. The monke…

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Opinion of the Court
BOYER, Chief Judge.

BOYER, Chief Judge.

Appellants who were plaintiffs in the trial court appeal an order finally dismissing their third amended complaint with prejudice. After twice amending, plaintiffs announced that they did not feel that further amendments would be beneficial and at their request the order of dismissal was made final.

Stripped to its essentials, the dismissed complaint alleges that one Winner, an agent or employee of defendant-appellee Kemmerer, kept wild monkeys on property owned by the defendant and that the defendant knew or should have known that said monkeys were not “properly contained or restrained, thus presenting a dangerous condition and risk to persons in the vicinity of said property” and that the defendant “negligently failed to warn or otherwise protect plaintiffs from [the] dangerous condition or risk of which he had knowledge, and of which plaintiffs neither knew or should have known by the use of reasonable care” and that said monkeys escaped from defendants property and went onto property owned by plaintiffs where they viciously attacked and bit plaintiff Judy O’Steen. There is no allegation that defendant had any interest in the monkeys nor that the monkeys were used by Winner incident to his employee or agency relationship nor that the monkeys had any relationship to defendant’s business or any other activity in which the defendant had any interest.

The issue therefore posed is: May liability be imposed upon an owner of real property for damages sustained on the property of another as a result of wild animals negligently maintained on the former’s property by an occupant who is either an agent or employee of the property owner in the absence of some interest or relationship between the property owner and the wild animals or other dangerous instrumentality?

The trial judge answered negatively. We affirm.

Appellants rely heavily upon a decision of our sister court of the Fourth District, Christie v. Anchorage Yacht Haven, Inc., 287 So. 2d 359 (Fla. DCA 4th 1973). Whether we agree or disagree with that decision we need not now decide because in any event appellants now seek to extend that case one step further. In the Christie case the court held that the owner of real property may be held accountable for damages sustained on the property as a result of a vicious dog kept on the property by another with the knowledge of the property owner. Sub judice the damages allegedly sustained by the plaintiffs were not incurred on the defendant’s property but on their own property. The distinction is not without a difference. Whether or not, in a proper case, we would follow Christie, we are not now prepared to go the extra step.

AFFIRMED.

MILLS, J., concurs.

JOPLING, WALLACE, Associate Judge, dissents.

Dissent
JOPLING, WALLACE, Associate Judge.

JOPLING, WALLACE, Associate Judge.

I dissent. The liability of the landowner as expressed in Christie v. Anchorage Yacht Haven, Inc., 287 So. 2d 359 (Fla. DCA 4th 1973) should not necessarily be restricted to the boundaries of the landlord’s property. I would reverse for trial on the merits.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Ny Tran v. Bancroft, 648 So. 2d 314 (Fla. 4th DCA 1995)
    …by the landlord. Id. Accord, Ward v. Young, 504 So. 2d 528, 529 (Fla. 2d DCA 1987) (landowner “cannot be held responsible” for injuries caused by a tenant’s dog that occur somewhere other than the landowners property); see also, O’Steen v. Kemmerer, 344 So. 2d 313 (Fla. 1st DCA 1977) (absent some special interest or relationship between the landowner and an animal kept on the premises by an occupant, the landowner will not be liable for injuries that the animal causes away from the property). Appellant urges…
  • Allen v. Enslow, 423 So. 2d 616 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982)
    …animals alleged to be negligently maintained on the defendant landowner’s adjacent property by his employee, and with the defendant’s knowledge or notice, absent any interest in or use of the animals by the defendant landowner. O’Steen v. Kemmerer, 344 So. 2d 313 (Fla. 1st DCA 1977). We are not persuaded by appellants’ attempt to distinguish O’Steen. That decision, precluding recovery in such circumstances by one injured on her own property, cannot in our opinion be reconciled with the asserted liability of…
  • Sparks v. Kintzing, 487 So. 2d 331 (Fla. 3d DCA 1986)
    …PER CURIAM. Affirmed. Allen v. Enslow, 423 So. 2d 616 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982); see Rotolante v. Dasilva, 460 So. 2d 560 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984); Martinez v. Schiffman, 402 So. 2d 605 (Fla. 3d DCA 1981); O’Steen v. Kemmerer, 344 So. 2d 313 (Fla. 1st DCA 1977).…

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