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Horse gets out, car swerves to miss, damage fault?

B

blue_tractor_man

Member
Hypothetically, if say your horse gets out of the fence (opens the gate herself), gets out in the road, a car swerves off the road and then back on, does some damage to the car, is the horse owner responsible for damage to the car? Horse is unhurt, runs home and says "This is where I live". Car owner follows horse home, leaves a note for horse owner.

A friend of a friend is asking.
 
Depends on state law. Some states have open range laws others don't. As well as other laws that may apply.
 
State and or local law most likely governs, we still have open range areas but even in open range horses are treated different then cows or hogs, where I live the owner would be liable for the horse but not for a cow. Who can prove the horse caused the wreck? Could have been texting.
 
In Iowa if it is your livestock or pet that cause the accident or damage to happen then your liable. It is considered your responsibility to keep you animals off the public right ways. The owner or the owner's liability insurance is going to pay for the damages.

The only places I know where this is different is the states that have "Open Range" laws. Then it is the driver of the vehicles responsibility to not hit the animals.
 
Simple answer is no. If he hits the horse possibly but otherwise if horse owner at fault everyone who sees livestock out could say they have damage due to livestock.

Joe
 
Depends if your cattle always get out and you are to lazy to fix the fence i would say it's your fault. However if you got good fences and cattle never get out there fed and had good care i would think you wouldn't have to worry accidents do happen. But to be safe to check your homeowners insurance it's a good thing to bring up.
 
If the state has "Open Range" signs and areas, no problem. If not, your friend might have a problem. Now if the state has "Open range" and this was not a marked marked, you also might have problems.
 
If you hit the horse it's the owners liability. If you wreck trying to avoid it it's all on you. No different than dodging a wild deere. You're supposed to be driving in a manner where you won't hit animals, pedestrians, or anything else.
 
I'd always heard here in Virginia that if a vehicle hit livestock on the public road the owner of the livestock was at fault. But with the law nothing is certain apparently there was a case several years ago that a cow was hit in the day time on a straight stretch of road the court ruled the driver at fault and the car owner not only didn't get any money money for the damages to the car
they had to pay for the cow.
My insurance company tells me that if I hit a deer my comprehensive insurance will pay for damages to my vehicle but if I serve to miss the deer and hit something off the road the
insurance won't pay.
Then there is the question was the horse actually in the road and contributed to the crash or was it just out and driver made up the serving part to cover himself or maybe the driver opened the gate and let the horse out after the crash to cover up things/have an excuse.Lawyers can come up with all sorts of questions.
 
I would guess it depends on the laws where it happens and its probably a good bet the owner of the live stock is going to get sued regardless of insurance.
 
"Fault" is something for the courts to decide. But, as other have said, it matters whether your state is an "open range" state. Most are not.

Owner of the car should file a police report and, assuming he has collision insurance, file a claim with his insurance company. The insurance company will handle it from there.

If the car's owner doesn't have collision insurance, he can attempt to collect damages from the horse's owner through small claims court.

From the perspective of the horse's owner, if the owner of the vehicle attempts to collect damages, he should probably turn it over to whatever insurance company he has: homeowner, farm, business, whatever.

From the perspective of a neutral party, a fair resolution would be for the horse's owner to pay the car owner's insurance deductible, or if he doesn't have collision insurance to split the cost of repairs.
 
Hitting a animal ie; dog horse cow deer is covered under comprehensive insurance.
The animal owner will be found at fault if he can be located unless this is a free range area and it is posted with state signs warning drivers it is a free range area.

Swerving to miss a animal and wrecking the car is considered a single car at fault accident and covered under collision insurance.
If the police were not called and a accident report filed it would be up to the owner of the animal to admit fault.

With out the owner of the animal admitting fault; no police report to have a 3rd party witness; who is to say this animal was even in the road?
The owner of the car who just ran off the road.
It becomes a he said she said matter.
 
I think we had a thread last year where the county or utility workers took down a section of someone's fence and the cattle got out and one got hit by a car. The farmer was held responsible. I think most places you are responsible for every animal you have whether it's an animal that gets hit by a car or damage the animal does or if your dog bites someone.
 
So your friend didn't ask anyone locally who might be able to answer his question (like his insurance company)? Hmmm, that seems strange and I would suggest it would be a good place to start.
 
My state hitting domestic animals owner pays yes car and animal care owner can have insurance. Hit a wild animal call insurance.
 
The common law varies by state but I would expect that without collision, the vehicle operator is responsible.

Dean
 
The car did not hit the horse so how do we know the horse was actually on the road? That is first thing that needs answered. Did car have dash camara video working? Any horse droppings on road to indicate or prove horse was actually on the road or possibly just in side ditch?
 
Friend of mine hit a loose cow after dark in a fog, coming over a hill, from a farm with a history of loose cattle. She had to pay for cow and her own damages as well as her own medical. About broke her financially. This was a few years back in Michigan.
 
You're liable in Michigan. My sister had two horses here. One got out,car swerved and hit our mailbox,scratched the side of the car,we were liable.
 
Leroy ..... post your contact info ...... I want to use you whenever I get into a legal scrape. I will be able to put your arguments to work in the courtroom to get me off .... .ha!
 
Insurance companies will always tell you to maintain your lane and hit what ever is on the road as going into the ditch usually causes more damage and leaves no evidence. When I drove for dart they would pay the deductable on insurance for animal hits as long as you stayed on the road. In this case hitting a horse would likely have been much worse, but would have eliminated the doubt about the horse being on the road.
 
If the owner knows the horse was on the road, and that the car swerved to avoid it, the right thing to do is pay up but do not admit fault. If the horse was loose, but there's no proof it was on the road, and no proof the damage to the car was from swerving to avoid it, then it's a tough call. The owner of the car may have seen the horse was loose, butnot necessarily on the road, and may be using it as a chance to get his damaged car fixed on someone else's dime.
 
varies by state. In Tx, unless the farmer has a record of bad fences, the Driver is responsible. If there are multiple reports of livestock out, then the farmer can be held liable. If the power company or others left a gate open, then it is on them, good luck finding "them".

Again, by state, and open range laws. even with open range laws, highways and most county roads are excepted from open range by legislation.

Whos to say a car didnt run off the road and hit the fence earlier? A low flying plane came over and spooked the animals? A bear chased them and they jumped the fence? Or the horse ran down the road the a place that had other horses... as horse will do almost always.
 
No road apples but there may have been piles in the car seat....

Don't know how that would hold up in court....

Dean
 
In KY we have to have farm insurance if you have livestock it covers it if the animals get out. Usually about $500 a year also covers machinery and if someone gets hurt on your farm
 
How would one know the horse opened the gate? That is pure speculation. It will boil down to who has the best liar err lawyer. A smart lawyer can get a jury to convict a ham sandwich. A wise one knows better than to try. Sad to say, we have very few wise lawyers.
 
Nebraska has "free range law" the animal owner is not responsible for accidents. If your car isn't insured. You pay the bill.
 
I think the salient point is "they swerved to miss the horse" and thus the damage was not caused by the horse but rather by them running off the road, personally if it was my car I'd turn it into my insurance company, they don't like to pay claims out of their own pocket, will make it near good with me and use the battery of lawyers on their payroll to try to get someone else to pay for it, conversely if you own the horse you should turn the note over to your insurance company, who also doesn't like paying claims out of their own pockets and they will use their battery of lawyers on their payroll to figure out if they have any liability, if they don't you can bet your sweet bippy they won't part with a dime. If the car owner doesn't like the answer of the insurance company they can sue you, then it will be up to your insurance company to defend you cause if you're covered and you loose the case they're on the hook for the judgement.
 
A full size horse, like a moose, is tall enough that most cars would take the legs out from under the hose and the horse would fall into the cars windshield. Swerving to avoid hitting a horse seems like a reasonable thing to do for the safety of the people in the car. The horse owner should be responsible for what ever injuries and property damage the wandering horse may have cause.
 
I tend to agree. I'd never swerve for a deer or a dog, but seeing the body of horse at eye level would probably be enough to make me check out the grader ditch.
 
Had an associate going to work and a deer ran across the road impaction causing minor damage to the car. Insurance paid off, no questions asked!

Best I can remember that your animals are your animals and your responsibility around here. I remember that if I had one get out I'd be looking to be accountable....so I made sure they didn't get out!
 
This is why you have animal riders for home insurance. We put one on as soon as we purchased our first calves.
Wifes friend didn't. Her horse got out and she spent several years paying off the guy who hit it and totalled his car.
This is in WI and your laws may be different.
 
Turn it in to your farm owners insurance agent and let the claims adjuster sort it out. Based on the facts in hand and my work in claims, the response to the car owner is sorry about your luck. The driver has a duty to avoid the collision and not drive at an unsafe speed for the conditions. A lot is based on where it happened, what the police report says, visibility, if there is a legal fence in place, etc. Bottom line though, unless the homeowner is uninsured no way should they be dealing with it.
 
That makes perfect sense for a trucking company. A semi is tall enough that one could probably hit a horse without anyone in the semi getting injured. A horse would probably damage the trucks front end and radiator, but the driver would not be in much danger. Cars are much lower, a horse will fall into the cars windshield. I would think people in a car that hits a horse are far more likely to be injured than someone in a semi truck.
 
Working as an insurance adjuster for 45 plus years I can tell you free range laws or not if you own animals it is your duty to keep them off the highway and off other peoples property. I worked many of these types of claims over the years and usually the animal owner's fences were in a poor state of repair and/or someone left the gate open and no it wasn't the horse that did it and even if did he is property and you the farmowner owns the animal and are liable. Now if you had a storm last night and a tree fell onto the fence and the animal got out where the fence is down you might be able to make a case for no liability and the insurance company can decide if the claim is worth fighting or best to settle. Most insurance companies are members of an arbitration alliance and the facts are presented to the members from various companies-reps from each company serve but not all at the same time. They will decide liability and if you are a member what the board decides is binding.
 
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