$1.4 Million Settlement for Dog Bite and Dislocated Kneecap in Prince William County
Won by Marks & Harrison.
Marks & Harrison recovered $1.4 million for a homebuilding worker bitten without provocation by a dog its owners knew had bitten before, who then dislocated his kneecap on a kitchen island while trying to get away.
What happened
The plaintiff worked for a homebuilding company, and the job took him to a couple's house in Prince William County, Virginia. He was there within the scope of that employment, doing the kind of routine on-site work his job required. While he was inside the home, the owners' dog bit him on the right thigh. He had done nothing to provoke the animal.
Startled and trying to get clear of the dog, the worker struck the home's kitchen island. The collision dislocated his kneecap. One short visit had left him with two separate injuries: a deep bite wound to the leg and a dislocated patella. Neither was minor.
The bite ran deep, and the complications stacked up from there. His treatment had to address nerve damage, a deep space infection in the right leg, traumatic compartment syndrome of the right leg, and chronic pain, along with arm weakness and pain. The attack also caused lasting psychological injury, including post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. Recovery was not a single procedure. It took multiple operations and follow-up procedures to treat everything the bite set in motion. Because the dog injured him while he was working, he received workers' compensation benefits for the injuries.
Virginia does not impose strict liability on dog owners, so the recovery turned on proof that these owners knew their dog was dangerous. Marks & Harrison attorneys John C. Shea, Berkley D. Foltz, and Robin M. Nagel built the claim around the animal's record. The dog had bitten other people before, and the owners knew it. Knowing that history, they took no steps to restrain the dog and gave the worker no warning before he came onto their property to do his job. That combination, a documented dangerous propensity plus owners who did nothing about it, was the core of the liability case.
The matter resolved for $1.4 million. Because it settled rather than going to a jury, there was no verdict to appeal and no remittitur or reduction of the figure. Virginia Lawyers Weekly later counted the recovery among the Commonwealth's million-dollar-plus settlements of 2024, the year Marks & Harrison placed five settlements on that list.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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