Suing for field injury

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tigger01

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In this climate of blame culture has anyone ever come across a situation where one horse owner attempts to sue another for a field injury? Regardless of the circumstances, is this something we should be worried about? Can these so called "claims r us" type firms really successfully follow through a claim where for example one horse kicks another (for whatever reason)? Just wondering as it's rather worrying dont you think!!?
 
This will only work i would imagine if a new horse was added to a field without other owners consent(and not written in contract)or...owner put your horse in with something without your prior consent...other than that absolutely not....a decent soliciotr will just study herd behaviour etc etc and bring it all up in the defence
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God forbid it should ever go that far...would mean none of our horses living as naturally as is possible EVER again
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..poor horses!!
 
Yes I definitely think it is something everyone should be concerned about. Right now with the Law as it stands, horse owners are protected by horses doing unpredictable things in a field environment with other horses, so when people do bring about claims on another owner, it is almost always thrown out. This will not remain the case, I don't believe, for very much longer.

You should definitely have insurance to cover situations like this because I think that the Law will not protect forever and changes will be made. Look at how many cases have been brought recently against horse owners whose horses have injured people (often due to the stupidity of the person) and these people have won their claims! Even though they were the silly ones.
 
A woman once threatened to sue us when our mare kicked one that had come to the livery yard we were both at, to be served by her stallion. We suggested she go ahead and try! She didn't and we did not offer to pay any of her vet bills. If it had been our mare that got kicked we would have had to stand the cost ourselves. Horses kick each other. Our big mare kicked my mare a week after the big one got here, my mares fault for pushing it, it happens.
 
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Yes I definitely think it is something everyone should be concerned about. Right now with the Law as it stands, horse owners are protected by horses doing unpredictable things in a field environment with other horses, so when people do bring about claims on another owner, it is almost always thrown out. This will not remain the case, I don't believe, for very much longer.

You should definitely have insurance to cover situations like this because I think that the Law will not protect forever and changes will be made. Look at how many cases have been brought recently against horse owners whose horses have injured people (often due to the stupidity of the person) and these people have won their claims! Even though they were the silly ones.

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world gone mad
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Insurance pay up...people have cottoned onto the try get rich quick
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Prime example...car drivers that get bumped at 20mph and go to hospital with whiplash
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...£5,000 later they have huge smug look and everybody's insurance gone up
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In very basic terms - for a 'claim' there has to 'blame'.
Somebody has to be at fault in order for a claim to be made so it has to be established that there has been 'negligence'.
If for example you put your horse out in a field with somebody elses without permission or prior agreement then it could be argued that you had been negligent because you didn't introduce the horses gradually or give the other owner the option of removing their horse etc. etc.
So there are situations where you could be held responsible but as long as you are sensible and considerate this should not be the case.
 
But if your horse was in a field with 2 or more others, how could you possibly prove which horse had done it? Even if a new horse had just been added, that doesn't prove the new horse did it. It could easily be that the new horse caused a change in the herd dynamics and one of the original horses did it. How could you prove it was not sustained by eg running full tilt into something solid? My friend's TB came in from a muddy sacrifice bog (didn't warrant being called a field) with a massive nosebleed and a fractured nose. Vet said it was impossible to say whether he'd been kicked or had hoolied headlong into the gate.

I would have thought that the burden of proof would - in most cases - mean that court actions would not be successful.
 
Without knowing the full circumstances it is impossible to give an answer. However normally for a claim to succeed there has to be some kind of negligence/culpability by a human that has caused the situation that the animal was injured in. If it is a case of one horse kicking another out of the blue then the claim is unlikely to succeed. If, due to some action or lack of action, the circumstances surrounding the receiving of the injury could be foreseen & could have been prevented then there may be a case.
 
In a field with more than one you could possibly go for indeterminate causation so that in the absence of evidence from either defendant that their horse caused the injury,both defendants can be held as joint tortfeasors each defendant being liable for the whole of the claimant's loss. They can basically sort out between themselves who pays what. However, the compensation culture is perceived to be greater than it actually is promoted largely by the conditional fee adverts we have rammed down our throats. As has been said unless you can prove negligence, there will be no case to answer. With the introduction of the Compenation Act 2006 claims have had less of a 'foothold' and are not as easy as people think. Insurance is essential in this day and age but in my opinion more for the obvious types of things that can happen regarding animals.
 
To be honest i think it's terrible people would even think to sue someone for an injury in the field, they're animals these things happen.
My mare was kicked in the head by another mare in the field, only just missing her eye and it was so deep that you could see her skull. We didn't except any money or anything from the owner, it wasn't her fault
 
Well this is something that is occupying me at the moment. My yard friend is being a bit awkward at the moment due to being annoyed with YO. My 2 have moved next door to her one. She has taken away her electric fence energiser claiming the battery is flat and she can't get it charged for 2 weeks until after new year (because she's annoyed, she won't go use YO's charger). In meantime the boundary between hers and mine is not electrified and her boy has a reputation for escaping over the years. The posts are 4 foot high and there must be miles of tape on the fence, it has 5 strands.

I do worry that if he gets out into my two's field and theres a scrap as a result (I have gelding and mare) I will find myself facing a dilemma as a consequence of her actions. My feeling would be why should I pay the bill when it was her pony that escaped because she stopped electrifying the fence.

Dammit, I'm going to take her battery and recharge it for her. There are only the 2 of us on the yard.
 
We have someone on our yard that has said if her horse gets injured in the field she will sue as she can't afford the vets bills, personally I think this is ridiculous and that anyone who would consider suing another horse owner for a field injury should move to a yard with individual turnout (this person can't afford too and should either stop whinging or move or sell her horse)!
 
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