Equine Law Blog
48 states across the country have some form of an Equine Activity Liability Act (as of May 2021). Are people in the two states without such a law – California and Maryland – worse off? If two recent California cases are any indication, courts have shown a willingness to dismiss lawsuits involving people who died in horse-related activities, even without an equine activity liability act.
Teenagers, when they learn to drive, are sometimes cautioned that they’re actually driving five cars at once – cars in front of them, behind them, and on either side in addition to the car in which they’re seated – and must watch all of them to protect their safety. In a roughly comparable way, those who board their horses at other peoples’ stables have every incentive to be watchful of the other horses on the property. Knowing that all the horses are current on their de-wormings and vaccinations can be just as important as making sure that your own horse stays on schedule. All it takes is one horse with a contagious illness, such as strangles, to cause disastrous problems throughout the whole barn.
For decades, this author has written articles on the importance of getting equine-related agreements in writing. Some of the articles even shared common characteristics of effective contracts. Still, people in the horse industry continue doing business with nothing in writing, and disputes have occurred. This article explores what can potentially happen when verbal contract disputes become the subject of a legal battle.
This year, I was invited to speak at the American Youth Horse Council’s Virtual Symposium on the topic of “Unique Equine Liability Risks Involving Minors - What They Are and How to Protect Yourself.” This article summarizes my remarks.
Children and horses have a strong bond. Many of us developed our passion for horses when we were young children. Those who provide horse-related activities for children, such as riding instructors and camps, face unique risks because the law looks at children differently than adults.
A boarded horse colics severely and requires emergency surgery, but the boarding stable cannot reach the owner to consent. Days earlier, the owner left for a vacation in a remote place with no phone or internet access. Despite hours of effort, the stable cannot find the horse owner. Finally, with no way of knowing whether the owner will approve costly surgery, the stable directs the veterinarian to euthanize the suffering horse.
A week later, the owner returns from vacation, only to find that her horse is gone. Then, when she submits a claim with her equine insurer, the company denies her insurance claim because the owner violated the insurance policy's condition to give the insurer timely notice of the horse's illness and death.
Although emergencies are a foreseeable part of horse ownership, the rest of this scenario could have been avoided, as this article explains.
Before a horse sale concludes, the seller asks the buyer to sign a written sale contract that includes an “as is” disclaimer. Should the buyer sign the contract? And if the seller refuses to negotiate a removal of that disclaimer, should the buyer walk away from the transaction? Not necessarily.
Foster Swift shareholder Julie I. Fershtman’s latest book, Equine Law and Horse Sense, has just been published by the American Bar Association (ABA).
Currently, all states except for California and Maryland have some form of an equine activity liability act (“EALA”). Since the first EALA was enacted 30 years ago, courts have evaluated numerous cases involving these laws. In two recent cases, lawsuits that had been brought by people injured in horse-related activities were dismissed.
For the past eight years, the U.S. Department of Labor (the "DOL") followed a strict six-part test to determine whether a for-profit employer could use interns without compensating them for the services they provided.
Broken pasture fences, broken gates, stall dividers kicked through, wash rack hoses and nozzles broken, stall walls bitten through, stall doors broken off of their hinges.
For many boarding stables, breaks and damages to the property like these are to be expected. The question is, who should pay for them? How should a boarding contract address this issue?
