From Maryland's highest court a decision on the value of a pet. Some cases catch your attention for a variety of reasons and this one involves the question of what value does the law place on a family pet. It involves a case in which a police officer was conducting a routine canvas of a neighborhood that had experience a series of burglaries. The officer went to a home and knocked on the door, but when no one answered the officer stepped off the porch, went to the side of the house and began taking notes. The officer heard a noise of a door opening and closing and heard a dog growling and saw a dog coming towards the officer. The officer raised a forearm and the dog pushed against it and when pushed away growled and moved forward towards the officer at which point the office shot the dog twice. The dog "Vern" died from the gunshots. A claim ensued as did trial and a jury awarded Vern's family $10,000 for loss of a chattel, and $500,000 in economic damages and $750,000 in noneconomic damages for the gross negligence claim. The circuit court then reduced the gross negligence damages to $200,000 pursuant to the Local Government Tort Claims Act ("LGTCA"). CJP § 5-301 et seq. The circuit court also reduced the trespass to chattel damages to $7,500 pursuant to the then-applicable damages cap in CJP § 11-110. (At the time of the event Section 11-110 limited damages for the loss of a pet to $7500.) So, the question for the Court was whether the cap on damages for the loss of a pet included all damages recoverable or just a claim for the loss of the chattel. The Court concluded that the statute incorporated all damages for the loss of the chattel and concluded that recovery was limited to $7500. The dissent argued that "Assuming arguendo that our controlling authority mandated the result found in the Majority opinion, the ineffable societal value ascribed to pets warrants a reassessment of Maryland law that continues to treat cherished family pets as mere chattel. Anne Arundel County, Maryland and Rodney Price v. Michael H. Reeves, No. 68, September Term, 2019 https://www.courts.state.md.us/data/opinions/coa/2021/68a19.pdf Charles W. Thompson, Jr. General Counsel & Executive Director D: 202-742-1016 P: (202) 466-5424 x7110 M: (240)-876-6790 [facebook icon]<https://www.facebook.com/InternationalMunicipalLawyersAssociation/>[twitter icon]<https://twitter.com/imlalegal>[linkedin icon]<https://www.linkedin.com/company/international-municipal-lawyers-association-inc./> [logo]<https://imla.org/> 51 Monroe St. Suite 404 Rockville, MD, 20850 www.imla.org<http://www.imla.org/> Plan Ahead! IMLA's fully virtual 2021 Mid-Year Seminar<https://imla.org/seminars/>, April 19-23, 2021 IMLA's 86th Annual Conference<https://imla.org/annual-conference/>, Sept. 29-Oct. 3, 2021 in Minneapolis, MN