A dog attacked a woman at an L.A. city animal shelter. She won a $5.4-million verdict

This is read by an automated voice.Please report any issues or inconsistencies here.

A woman who was mauled by a dog at a Los Angeles city animal shelter has been awarded $5.4 million by a jury.Genice Horta, 51, said that neither the shelter nor the rescue group she worked for told her the dog, a Belgian Malinois named Maximus, had bitten a teenager and a shelter employee, sending both to the hospital.After six surgeries to repair the bones and nerves in her right arm, Horta was left with permanent damage, according to a brief by her attorneys in the lawsuit she filed in 2022.After a 10-day trial, the L.A.

County Superior Court jury decided last week that the city was 62.5% liable, the rescue group was 25% liable and Horta was 12.5% liable for medical expenses and pain and suffering.It was the third multi-million payout in recent years involving allegations that the city animal shelters failed to notify potential adopters that a dog had bitten and seriously injured someone, as required by state law.

Horta’s case “revealed a series of serious and preventable mistakes made with respect to warning about Maximus’ bite history and adopting out and failing to control a dangerous dog,” one of her attorneys, Ivan Puchalt, said in a statement.A spokesperson for the L.A.City Attorney’s Office did not respond to requests for comment.Agnes Sibal-von Debschitz, communications director for LA Animal Services, said in statement that according to department policy, “staff must provide a bite and behavioral disclosure to any person receiving an animal with a prior bite history.” The policy was formally enacted last November in response to a $3.25-million settlement reached by the city with Kristin Wright, who was severely injured by a pit bull she adopted from the South L.A.

shelter.Wright said the shelter didn’t inform her that the dog had bitten his previous owner’s elderly mother in the face.The rescue group, HIT Living Foundation, did not respond to a ...