Police dog bite victim loses case

A district court judge has dismissed a damages claim made by a bystander who required surgery after being attacked by a police dog.

Cedric Lawrence, of the South Auckland suburb of Manurewa, sought $20,000 in exemplary damages after the attack by the dog, named Stone, in October 2006.

Mr Lawrence was bitten after Stone's handler Constable Hamish Chapman lost control of him while chasing a burglar.

The dog did not release Mr Lawrence immediately when ordered to by Mr Chapman.

He spent three days in Middlemore Hospital and had two sessions of surgery to seven puncture wounds to the calf.

Mr Lawrence claimed the attack meant police had breached a duty of care owed to him to ensure the dog was safe and properly under control.

But Judge Peter Spiller decided the attack did not meet legal standards of negligence and battery.

Judge Spiller said police had to have members of the public in mind when deploying police dogs, but noted that case law revealed a strong public policy argument against imposing a common law duty if it led to defensive policing.

He said there was nothing leading up to the incident which showed the dog had a propensity to bite.

"It has to be borne in mind that biting is an inherent risk of using police dogs in the detection of crime and that the tort of negligence is subject to the test of reasonableness."

Judge Spiller said the facts of the case did not meet the legal test of battery either, and police behaviour had not been outrageous enough to meet the test required for exemplary damages to be awarded.

Mr Lawrence's lawyer, Jeremy Sutton, who has dealt with six cases involving police dog bites, said he was disappointed by the decision.

"It is unfair that there are a significant number of police dog attacks on innocent members of the public," he said.

"I hope that the law soon catches up to the injustice being done. In light of this case police are almost immune from liability for the actions of their dogs."

WRONG TARGET

The case was concluded a week after Brett Abraham was savaged by a police dog while the 63-year-old was chasing an intruder from his property in Epsom.

Mr Abraham had to have surgery after the German Shepherd, which has since been stood down from duty, "chewed the living Christ" out of his leg.

A police dog handler last week said police dogs often operated as "unguided missiles" and would "go for anything" if they could not identify the correct target.

- NZPA