Los Angeles Jury Finds City Grossly Negligent After Shelter Volunteer's Arm Is Mauled by Dog With Undocumented Bite History
After trial: The court docket records an amended judgment in November 2023 and an acknowledgment of full satisfaction of judgment filed in May 2024, followed by dismissal of the case. We found no appeal.
Won by Greene Broillet & Wheeler.
Kelly Kaneko, then 36, was volunteering at a Los Angeles Animal Services shelter in Lincoln Heights in October 2019 when a 100-pound German Shepherd mix named Jaxx bit her arm and held on for more than five minutes. The dog's kennel card said nothing of his history, including a prior bite to his previous owner. At the end of May 2023, a Los Angeles jury found the City grossly negligent and awarded her $6.8 million.
What happened
In October 2019, Kelly Kaneko, then 36, was volunteering at the Los Angeles Animal Services shelter in Lincoln Heights. She was putting a dog named Jaxx, a 100-pound German Shepherd mix, into his kennel when he bit her arm and latched on. By her account he held on for more than five minutes while she dragged herself and the dog across the facility looking for help.
The injuries were severe. Ms. Kaneko spent nearly 40 days in intensive care and underwent multiple surgeries and skin grafts. At the emergency room, medical staff indicated her hand was clinically dead. Surgeons saved the arm, but it has reduced blood flow, altered color and a diminished pulse, and she lives with ongoing nerve damage. More surgeries were planned.
The lawsuit turned on what the shelter had not written down. Jaxx's intake card carried no information about his history, which included biting his previous owner and other aggressive behavior. Volunteers rely on those cards to decide which dogs they should handle. Her lawyer, Ivan Puchalt, told CBS Los Angeles that with proper documentation Ms. Kaneko would have been able to read the comments and know this was an aggressive dog that, as a volunteer, she should not walk.
The case was tried in Los Angeles County Superior Court. At the end of May 2023, the jury found the City of Los Angeles liable for gross negligence and awarded Ms. Kaneko $6.8 million. The City Attorney's Office was unavailable for comment when CBS contacted it. The court entered judgment in June 2023 and an amended judgment that November, and the court docket shows the City satisfied the judgment in May 2024, after which the case was dismissed.
Jaxx was euthanized months after the attack. Ms. Kaneko, who said she was born with a love for animals, told CBS that the verdict showed the truth was on her side. Animals 24-7 reported that more than a dozen other lawsuits against the shelter system over dog attacks on employees, volunteers and adopters were pending when the verdict came in.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Los Angeles County Superior Court docket, Kelly Kaneko v. City of Los Angeles, et al., filed Sept. 10, 2020
- 2.CBS News, 'Animal shelter volunteer awarded almost $7 million after dog nearly tears her arm off', June 2023·Archived copy
- 3.CBS Los Angeles, 'Animal shelter volunteer awarded $6.8 million after being mauled by dog', June 1, 2023·Archived copy
- 4.Animals 24-7, 'Jury orders L.A. Animal Services to pay $6.8 million to mauled volunteer', June 4, 2023·Archived copy
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