Value System

Dog kills cat, court awards owner $45,000

May 10, 12:07 PM (ET)

SEATTLE (Reuters) - A woman who sued a neighbor after her cat was mauled by his dog was awarded more than $45,000, the Seattle woman's lawyer said on Monday.

Paula Roemer's cat Yofi was killed after her neighbor's dog broke through a fence in February 2004. The dog's owner, Wallace Gray, had pleaded guilty to animal-control violations in Seattle Municipal Court and admitted negligence.

Seattle District Court Judge Barbara Linde ordered Gray to pay Roemer a little over $45,000 for Yofi's death, including $30,000 for the value of the cat, $15,000 for emotional distress, and other charges.

Roemer's lawyer, Adam Karp, who specializes in animal cases, said that while multimillion-dollar judgments have been awarded over thoroughbred horses, her award was the highest for a pet in the United States that he was aware of. Roemer has said she would donate the money to animal welfare groups.

AP May 10,2005 12:07pm (ET)

Wha-wha-what?

Let’s forget about her $15,000 emotional distress for a moment. How on Earth is this cat worth $30,000? If the cat was actually worth $30,000 what was it doing only a fence away from any dog?

So I did some additional research. Seattle Times article

The first part of this fact-filled article by Warren Cornwall and Craig Welch:

Paula Roemer knows most people don't understand her passion for animals.

Some of her North Seattle neighbors aren't thrilled about the crows she attracts to her back yard with bird seed, she says. When she rescued a scraggly kitten abandoned on a pathway while she was vacationing in Israel 13 years ago, people reacted with disdain.

So when a neighbor's dog mauled and killed that same beloved cat, Yofi, last year, Roemer barely mentioned it to people she knew. But now she feels that she found one person who understood: a judge.

Last week, Seattle District Court Judge Barbara Linde ordered the dog's owner to pay $45,480.12 to Roemer for the cat's death.

"Not too many [people] value a cat," said Roemer, a retired, 71-year-old former junior-high-school teacher, who lives alone except for her animals. "You know what I'm saying: 'It's just a cat.' And I'm very, very thankful we had a judge who knew that a cat had some value."

Judge Linde determined that Roemer should receive $30,000 in replacement value for the loss of her cat, $15,000 for emotional distress, $90 to recoup the cost of having Yofi cremated, $80 in medical expenses and $24.12 in interest.
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Again - $30,000 for the cat? Was the judge on crack? In this day of excessive punitive damages I can understand if she awarded Roemer $44,000 for emotional distress and $1000 for replacement value of a stray cat, but $30,000? My head just exploded.

I can understand this woman was devoted to her cat; however, she was a little bit wacky about her pets as evidenced by these quotes:

"I didn't go to court to get money," she said. "I could either burn his house down or I could go and shoot his dogs in front of him and shoot him, or I could shoot myself. So I decided to be rational and get a lawyer.” And, "It sounds crazy that I value my animals more than I do people. I help out people, too," she said. "It's just that in my personal life, I get along better with animals."

I'm glad she called a lawyer because I’ve seen too many of these neighbor disputes turn into crime scenes.

But $30K for a stray cat? I wonder if they elect judges in Seattle.