A woman who was mauled by a dog at a Los Angeles city animal shelter has been awarded $5.4 million by a jury. <\/p>\n
Genice Horta, 51, said that neither the shelter nor the rescue group she worked for told her the dog, a Belgian Malinois named Maximus, had bitten a teenager and a shelter employee, sending both to the hospital.<\/p>\n
After six surgeries to repair the bones and nerves in her right arm, Horta was left with permanent damage, according to a brief by her attorneys in the lawsuit she filed in 2022.<\/p>\n
After a 10-day trial, the L.A. County Superior Court jury decided last week that the city was 62.5% liable, the rescue group was 25% liable and Horta was 12.5% liable for medical expenses and pain and suffering. <\/p>\n
It was the third multi-million payout in recent years involving allegations that the city animal shelters failed to notify potential adopters that a dog had bitten and seriously injured someone, as required by state law<\/a>. <\/p>\n Horta\u2019s case \u201crevealed a series of serious and preventable mistakes made with respect to warning about Maximus\u2019 bite history and adopting out and failing to control a dangerous dog,\u201d one of her attorneys, Ivan Puchalt, said in a statement.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the L.A. City Attorney\u2019s Office did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n Agnes Sibal-von Debschitz, communications director for LA Animal Services, said in statement that according to department policy, \u201cstaff must provide a bite and behavioral disclosure to any person receiving an animal with a prior bite history.\u201d <\/p>\n The policy was formally enacted last November in response to a $3.25-million settlement<\/a> reached by the city with Kristin Wright, who was severely injured by a pit bull she adopted from the South L.A. shelter. Wright said the shelter didn\u2019t inform her that the dog had bitten his previous owner\u2019s elderly mother in the face.<\/p>\n The rescue group, HIT Living Foundation, did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n HIT Living Foundation hired Horta to drive Maximus from the East Valley Animal Shelter to Arizona. She had no prior experience with shelter dogs, according to the city\u2019s attorneys.<\/p>\n On Sept. 23, 2020, after a shelter employee told Horta that Maximus had \u201ckennel anxiety,\u201d she offered the dog a treat containing trazodone, a common anxiety medication for dogs, according to an amended complaint by Horta\u2019s attorneys. <\/p>\n Maximus took the treat, then lunged and latched onto Horta\u2019s right hand and arm. A fuzzy video of the attack was played in court during the trial.<\/p>\n Horta alleged that the shelter employee who brought Maximus to her car negligently failed to control him and never told her the dog could be dangerous. During the attack, the employee was gripping a metal pole with a cable looped around Maximus\u2019 neck. <\/p>\n The employee, Jose Humildad, testified that he told Horta not to approach Maximus with the treat. <\/p>\n Maximus\u2019 previous owners surrendered him to the shelter after he bit their 15-year-old daughter on the foot, leaving deep puncture wounds and requiring hospital treatment, according to the brief by Horta\u2019s attorneys, and several weeks later, Maximus bit a shelter employee who went to the emergency room for a severe bite to the abdomen. <\/p>\n Horta said she never was told of the attacks, which made Maximus unsuitable for public adoption, and he was placed on the city\u2019s New Hope list, which is accessible to registered nonprofit rescues. <\/p>\n Shelter employees had documented Maximus \u201cviciously biting and snapping at people walking past his enclosure,\u201d according to the brief by Horta\u2019s attorneys. One employee wrote \u201cUSE EXTREME CAUTION!!!\u201d <\/p>\n Horta\u2019s attorneys argued that Maximus was so dangerous that he should have been euthanized. <\/p>\n The city pushed back on that interpretation.<\/p>\n L.A. animal shelters are not \u201cdeath row in Mississippi at midnight,\u201d Deputy City Atty. Joshua Quinones said in his closing argument Thursday afternoon. \u201cThis is a rescue operation.\u201d <\/p>\n Quinones also argued that Maximus already had been sold to HIT Living Foundation when he bit Horta.<\/p>\n Trying to find Maximus a home, animal rescuers posted repeatedly on Instagram <\/a>days before the 1-year-old dog bit Horta, describing him as a \u201chandsome misunderstood pup\u201d and a \u201cyoung troublemaker\u201d in danger of being euthanized. <\/p>\n The post said Maximus had a bite history but provided no details.<\/p>\n