This is in Florida - thanks in advance
Incident occurred recently in a condo with myself (renter) and another woman (owner of a different unit.) As I was coming out of the elevator into the lobby, she was coming inside the front door with her dog. The dog had no leash and ran right over to mine (3 times smaller than hers) and within 10 seconds attacked her. The woman did not help and just stood there while I screamed "get your dog please" and jumped in to try and separate them. I did not want to kick or hit her dog so I tried to grab my dog with both arms to get her up and away from the other one. Without any help this was difficult and took a few times while they were still going at it.
Finally I succeeded, however since my dog was still in defense mode, she bit one of my fingers as I scooped her up, not realizing it was me. The other dog was STILL trying to attack her while my dog was in my arms, and I put her into the corner of the lobby with my body covering her. The other dog was still jumping up on my side to try and get my dogs legs. My finger is bleeding everywhere, my dog is still on the leash, the other dog is off leash still with the owner still not helping and just saying 'My dog never did this before."
I finally got into the stairwell and upstairs - the dog had 2 bite marks on her ear and was shaken up, and my finger was cut pretty bad. The board looked at the cameras and saw what happened (confirming my story as I told it.) They contacted the owner and she said "the dog got out of her collar and I didn't want her running into the street so I opened the lobby door so she would go inside." Turns out it is actually her daughters dog who lives in her apartment, and was away. She did NOT ask who I am (we do not know each other, but I do now the daughter a bit) and did NOT say to apologize or anything. The board reiterated the condo rules and sent a letter to all owners, but could not do more (I decided not to file a police report as the dog was overall not bad and the actual bite to me was from my own dog.)
I spent only about $150 at urgent care/cvs for my finger and her ear, and assumed they would be fine paying it as it was much lower than it could have been had I gone to a vet also. A few days later when the daughter came home (we know her a little bit) she texted me lots of apologies, however not much interest in paying for anything and said "oh, sorry my mom has extreme anxiety and social issues so that's probably why she didn't reach out" -- no explanation of why she did not run after the dog or help me get them apart. When the issue of $ came up, she said "My mom said she will deal with it because she was there, not me" and gave me her phone #! So, the burden is on me to call a woman who didn't help me that day, and hasn't even asked if I'm ok or apologized? I am not comfortable doing that. (I also heard from another neighbor she was saying things like "my dog just probably wanted to play etc etc -- which is absolutely insane.) However I DO want to keep the peace as it's a small buliding and we do not want to have any long standing issues over this.
Anyway, people are saying to write a letter to the Mom with the receipts and pictures, asking for the $ that way. A board member has offered to unofficially email it as a courtesy so I do not have to deal with her directly.
Questions:
1. Legally, is the mom (apt owner, person walking the dog that day) or daughter (owner of the dog") responsible/liable?
2. Am I right that it is still their responsibility for my bite, since the negligence and lack of help caused my dog to defend herself and in turn bite me?
3. Knowing I am not going to take them to court for so little, do I appeal to emotion more or write a more formal/legal-sounding letter?
Thanks all!
Incident occurred recently in a condo with myself (renter) and another woman (owner of a different unit.) As I was coming out of the elevator into the lobby, she was coming inside the front door with her dog. The dog had no leash and ran right over to mine (3 times smaller than hers) and within 10 seconds attacked her. The woman did not help and just stood there while I screamed "get your dog please" and jumped in to try and separate them. I did not want to kick or hit her dog so I tried to grab my dog with both arms to get her up and away from the other one. Without any help this was difficult and took a few times while they were still going at it.
Finally I succeeded, however since my dog was still in defense mode, she bit one of my fingers as I scooped her up, not realizing it was me. The other dog was STILL trying to attack her while my dog was in my arms, and I put her into the corner of the lobby with my body covering her. The other dog was still jumping up on my side to try and get my dogs legs. My finger is bleeding everywhere, my dog is still on the leash, the other dog is off leash still with the owner still not helping and just saying 'My dog never did this before."
I finally got into the stairwell and upstairs - the dog had 2 bite marks on her ear and was shaken up, and my finger was cut pretty bad. The board looked at the cameras and saw what happened (confirming my story as I told it.) They contacted the owner and she said "the dog got out of her collar and I didn't want her running into the street so I opened the lobby door so she would go inside." Turns out it is actually her daughters dog who lives in her apartment, and was away. She did NOT ask who I am (we do not know each other, but I do now the daughter a bit) and did NOT say to apologize or anything. The board reiterated the condo rules and sent a letter to all owners, but could not do more (I decided not to file a police report as the dog was overall not bad and the actual bite to me was from my own dog.)
I spent only about $150 at urgent care/cvs for my finger and her ear, and assumed they would be fine paying it as it was much lower than it could have been had I gone to a vet also. A few days later when the daughter came home (we know her a little bit) she texted me lots of apologies, however not much interest in paying for anything and said "oh, sorry my mom has extreme anxiety and social issues so that's probably why she didn't reach out" -- no explanation of why she did not run after the dog or help me get them apart. When the issue of $ came up, she said "My mom said she will deal with it because she was there, not me" and gave me her phone #! So, the burden is on me to call a woman who didn't help me that day, and hasn't even asked if I'm ok or apologized? I am not comfortable doing that. (I also heard from another neighbor she was saying things like "my dog just probably wanted to play etc etc -- which is absolutely insane.) However I DO want to keep the peace as it's a small buliding and we do not want to have any long standing issues over this.
Anyway, people are saying to write a letter to the Mom with the receipts and pictures, asking for the $ that way. A board member has offered to unofficially email it as a courtesy so I do not have to deal with her directly.
Questions:
1. Legally, is the mom (apt owner, person walking the dog that day) or daughter (owner of the dog") responsible/liable?
2. Am I right that it is still their responsibility for my bite, since the negligence and lack of help caused my dog to defend herself and in turn bite me?
3. Knowing I am not going to take them to court for so little, do I appeal to emotion more or write a more formal/legal-sounding letter?
Thanks all!