Ohio Supreme Court rules landlord is not liable for dog attack

The Ohio Supreme Court has sided with the owner of a Montgomery County mobile home park after a dog bit an 11‑year‑old boy on the property.

In a 5-2 decision, justices ruled that landlords who allow dogs in common areas aren’t necessarily responsible for the animals’ behavior. Ohio’s dog safety laws punish owners and “harborers” of dogs, but the mobile home park didn’t qualify as a “harborer,” the majority ruled.

“An owner of a manufactured-home community that allows residents to possess dogs in their dwellings and allows a dog to be in common areas while on a leash is not, by itself, a harborer of a dog,” Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy wrote.

“Although the owner of the manufactured-home community allowed dogs in common areas under certain conditions, there is no evidence that it sheltered, protected, or exercised control over the dog that is the subject of this case,” she wrote in a decision joined by fellow Republican Justices Patrick DeWine, Joe Deters, Megan Shanahan and Dan Hawkins.

The case originated with a dog attack in 2020. A cocker spaniel seriously injured Kelly Hipshire’s then 11-year-old son at the mobile home park‘s playground. Hipshire sued Beth Anne Lake, whose son had taken the leashed dog to the playground, and the Oakwood Villages mobile home park owner, Sun Secured Financing.

An appeals court panel sided with Hipshire. But on June 17, the Ohio Supreme Court overturned that decision.

Justices Patrick Fischer, a Republican, and Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, dissented. They argued that Ohio courts have long held landlords responsible for dogs kept on their premises.

“For decades, courts across Ohio have held that a ‘harborer’ of a dog is a person who has possession and control of the premises where the dog lives and silently acquiesces to the dog’s presence,” Fischer wrote.

“There may be valid policy reasons for wanting to limit a landlord’s liability for its tenant’s dog. But if Ohio wants to institute such a drastic change, it should come from the General Assembly,” he said.

Reporter Laura Bischoff contributed to this article.

State government reporter Jessie Balmert can be reached at jbalmert@gannett.com or @jbalmert on X.

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This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio high court overturns ruling in child dog‑bite case