All law students have heard of the “one free bite rule” but what about the “one free flap rule”? Cynthia Ruddell is suing Lolita Rose over a foul fowl attack by her pet duck. Ruddell said that the duck flapped its wings at her and caused her to fall backward and fracture her wrist in two spots. She is now suing over an animal with “Abnormally dangerous propensities in attacking people.”
The quack attack is detailed in the complaint and includes just two claims: negligence and animal liability. The later claim allows for strict liability for wild animals and vicious domestic animals. Interestingly, her lawyer Gregrory Price does not try to claim that the duck is wild, presumably because they are routinely raised on farms and sometimes treated as pets. Instead, he is going for the vicious fowl angle. The complaint alleges that Rose “needlessly endangered the public” with the flapping crazed beast.
Price may want to call Jimmy Carter who was attacked by a rabbit to show that even cute little creatures can become homicidal killing machines.
The problem is that the vicious propensity of the duck was displayed by the flapping of wings not pecking or using some type of duck shank. The complaint says that Ruddell was leaving her motor home on her mother’s property on May 7, 2013 when the duck started flapping at her, causing her to fall in Estacada, Oregon. A jury could continue that this was not a vicious propensity but merely a startled duck doing what startled ducks do. This is much like a dog growling and a person falling backwards. Moreover, the complaint does not indicate any past vicious conduct from said duck. Absent more, the strict liability claim is likely to fall away like . . . well water off a duck’s back.
It may come down to a court appearance by the duck (please, please make this happen Judge). The jury can then decided if the ugly duckling is a dead duck.
Ruddell is demanding $25,000 for medical expenses and $250,000 for her pain, her suffering and loss of prior activities due to her injuries.
Source: KATU
Paul, Here in the Dairy State we have many cow/auto crashes. Those cows don’t give much. They are almost always significant injury events and a dead cow.
I hope that duck haunts this woman for the other wrist.
The duck is no longer alive. 🙁
The judge will have a difficult time not laughing out loud in court.
Depending on where you live, livestock related accidents are not uncommon.
Ducks are pussy cats compared to a blue jay protecting its nest.
Was this a new duck or did the woman know it lived next door?
“Women”.
Or was it the movie Animal House? I can not recall.
In picking the jury: find out which members of the panel buy that Afflack insurance. If you are the defendant have someone in the hallway bellow out AFFLACK! so that those in the courtroom can hear him and they will get a kick out of it. The plaintiff’s lawyer must have a head injury to bring this suit. The duck should intervene and sue for defamation. Seriously. That would put the case on the right footing so to speak.
Web feet Good! Single toes baaaad.
–Animal Farm
Leaving her motor home? Let me guess…. in those new fashionable 5-6″ heels? What next? A duck leash?
O virium fortem, et mulier.
I’ve had numerous run ins with aggressive Canada geese near my mailbox. They have teeth or something sharp in their mouths and are considerably bigger than a little duck.
Annie – if anything happens with the Canadian geese you can always sue Canada.
To the insurance fraud deniers, what do you think of the $250k demand for pain a suffering. And, as you see, the medical profession is part of the fraud, $25k for them!
keebler – duck, duck, go is not relevant as a defense in this case.
It is common knowledge (no i am not going to link stats) that ducks, geese and chickens are both watch and attack animals. I got cornered by a rooster one time while visiting a farm. My grandfather keep attack geese on one of his farms and I was warned to keep away from them.
Now if I read this right, does the duck belong to the mother and she is suing her own mother?
Maybe she’s never played, duck, duck, go.
I thought the quackery were manly on the east coast, now I see they have a quack in the northwest as well.
While I was yet in high school, recalling a plethora of awefully (not a typo) foolish things I had done, it came to my mind to accept and avow that I am inescapably adamantly ignorant and intransigently stupid.
I took that to be a blessing, as that signaled to me the useful factoid that I may never run out of stuff to learn.
Having affirmed my own ignorance and stupidity as being unbounded, I pondered whether anyone else might be similarly ignorant and stupid.
So far, I have not ever met any other human person whose ignorance and stupidity appears to me to be significantly lesser or greater than mine is. Of course, I stipulate herewith that I may be too ignorant and too stupid to recognize that I, alone, among all humans, are of the adamantly ignorant and intransigently stupid proper subset of the human race.
So, the above stipulated, methinks that Cynthia Ruddell’s manner of disembarking from the aforementioned motor home was an act of reckless endangerment, inasmuch as it evidently put the duck in mortal fear of its life, and that fear has been fully justified by the filing of the lawsuit.
In my view, the duck acted appropriately, and only in necessary self-defense.
This is not a case of no harm, no fowl. It should be noted, however, that the startling duck may have been the startled duck, since there is no photo of the injured woman, A loud NASCAR or threatening NRA jacket may have startled this poor beast. A counterclaim may be in order.
“It may come down to a court appearance by the duck (please, please make this happen Judge). “
~+~
How about a trial by weighing the Duck and the Plaintiff on a balance like they did on Monty Python & the Holy Grail ?
What a Quack! and the duck is quite loud also.
I don’t believe the plaintiff’s case at all. I vote summary judgement.
Let’s say the duck went Medieval on the plaintiff. How much damage could the duck have inflicted. Instead she panicked out at the mere flapping and fell on her own.
Bah!