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Most owners are the *major* contributor for a dog's behavioral problems.
Having the owner present for the treatment of those problems often doesn't help and in fact hinders any training to correct those problems.

Whew..........I could NOT think of how to phrase that, and Will did it so well!

Either the insurance company will settle or Cesar will have his day in court and justice will be done.

The Breach of Contract Claim:

What is a contract? A contract is a promise the law will enforce. To prove a breach of contract the Plaintiff (TV Producer) must prove: (1) contract formation; (2) breach (they broke their promise); and (3) damages.

Depends on what the Defendant (Cesar’s Training Facility) promised in his contract as to whether he breached it and whether there are in fact damages. So we should reserve harsh judgment for the Plaintiff until we know what Cesar promised them.

Fraud

What is Fraud? When a person intentionally makes a material misrepresentation, false claim, or gives incomplete or misleading information they have committed what is a civil law violation known as a tort. The exact definition of fraud varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but the above is a fair state of the common law definition.

Again we don’t know all of the facts from this short news article and should reserve judgment. It may have been that one of Cesar’s employees committed fraud? Under vicarious liability Cesar can be sued for wrongful acts committed by his employees while they are acting within the course or scope of their employment known as respondent superior.

Animal Cruelty

What is animal cruelty? It is the intentional infliction of physical pain on a domestic animal. The Plaintiff would have to show that it was the intent of Cesar or his employees to inflict physical pain on the dog.

I seriously doubt that they will be able to show this and this is more or less something they through on-top of the breach of contract and fraud claim to solicit an out-of-court settlement.

Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress

Intentional infliction of emotional distress is perhaps the most difficult of any intentional tort to prove for a Plaintiff. The Plaintiff would have to show that the acts of Cesar and/or his employees were intentionally done or just so extreme and outrageous that they caused severe emotional distress (typically physical symptoms are needed) to cause damages (couldn’t go to work that day and lost income, had to seek medical help, or had to seek psychological help).

Again this is just an add-on to the two primary charges of breach of contract and fraud in order to solicit an out-of-court settlement.

Conclusion

This case will probably never see the inside of a courtroom. The Judge assigned will most likely order the parties to attend court ordered arbitration where the parties will come to some type of settlement agreement.

I'd like to add to the above that Animal Cruelty is also when a person acts with reckless disregard for an animal that results in physical harm to it.

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I feel sorry for Cesar. This client comes to him with a problem dog and needs help. Then they sue him. Cesars guy should have killed the damn dog. Then he would only have had to pay $200.00 to replace the dog - OK so you toss in another $100 for pain and suffering for the ass hole owner.

Wow, I hope you were really joking in that post. It's not at all funny saying that they should have just killed that dog and any decent dog owner could care less about money for pain and suffering.

Jim,
I think the point was - if the dog died, damages would be limited to the purchase price of the dog (in most states). An example: a lady I know adopted a dog from a shelter that detected her seizures. The dog died from a reaction to a ProHeart injection. The replacement value of the dog (to get another seizure alert dog was over 20,000. They recieved like $25 - the amount they paid as an adoption fee. for the dog.

If my dogs died from some "accident" and I sued somone over the death of my dogs and won, I would recieve exactly $5.

I have to mention this - The last time I checked, the trachea is in front of the esophagus, and to do damage to the esophagus, the trachea would have to be collapsed (which my vet has told me cannot be corrected with surgery). I've read a couple different versiond of the story - none mention damage to the dog's trachea (which would be quite notable because of the coughing it causes).

Secondly - placing a choke collar on a dog and overworking it does not necessarily cause "severe bruising to the back inner thighs" and "bleeding from the nose and mouth." I am not doubting that the dog was injured, but I am wondering if a pre-existing medical condition (a blood disorder?) contributed to the injury.

Third, I highly doubt that a person could take a dog to Cesar or a person who trains under Cesar and not know that the dog will be exercised - and most likely on a treadmill. (This is my opinion - not based on any fact). I also findit surprising that a person would object to a trainer's choice of collar (imagine the wording of the claim if it was a prong collar....)

I'm trying really hard to be objective, but something doesn't seem right here. I'm defenitely curious to see how this turns out.

Now.. where is Connie? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

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I have to mention this - The last time I checked, the trachea is in front of the esophagus, and to do damage to the esophagus, the trachea would have to be collapsed (which my vet has told me cannot be corrected with surgery). I've read a couple different versiond of the story - none mention damage to the dog's trachea (which would be quite notable because of the coughing it causes)......Secondly - placing a choke collar on a dog and overworking it does not necessarily cause "severe bruising to the back inner thighs" and "bleeding from the nose and mouth." I am not doubting that the dog was injured, but I am wondering if a pre-existing medical condition (a blood disorder?) contributed to the injury......Third, I highly doubt that a person could take a dog to Cesar or a person who trains under Cesar and not know that the dog will be exercised - and most likely on a treadmill. (This is my opinion - not based on any fact). I also findit surprising that a person would object to a trainer's choice of collar (imagine the wording of the claim if it was a prong collar....).....I'm trying really hard to be objective, but something doesn't seem right here. I'm defenitely curious to see how this turns out. .....Now.. where is Connie? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Oh, I am right here, biting my tongue until it bleeds, trying to stay silent and objective.

Not one version of the story holds water -- to me -- (and Anne points out the weirdnesses very nicely) ...........but we don't know, and we are all familiar with how the media handle such celebrity stuff........ and BTW, sort of interesting that no clients had problems* until he became well-known and viewed as a probable "deep pocket".......

But I'm a-holdin' it in! I'm probably too invested in my serious and long-term respect and liking for the guy to be an objective observer. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />


*I mean, as far as I know; anyone ever heard of one, besides the groups we all know about, who are generally trying to get him off TV before he poisons the public's mind with horrendous ideas like letting dogs be dogs instead of furkids?

Oops.........there I go. Darn you, Anne!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Sorry Connie <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I feel sorry for Cesar. He has a good message that most dog owners need to hear, but fame and the media is throwing his message into the trashcan and starting up a circus.

Agreed Connie! Fan girls unite! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> I am a regular at the about.com dog forums and about half of the folks over there don't care for him at all since they prefer Suzanne Clothier, Karen Pryor, Jean Donaldson or Patrica McConnell or whoever else, they are trying to have a field day with it. I like Clothier and McConnell just fine, but the others, meh...I think they are mostly rather envious of his ability to get his own show and be relatively straight with the owners as I still do not understand why some of them don't like him. I mean sheesh, I don't agree with absolutely 100% of what he says all the time, but man, it's not all that much different than what a lot of other well known trainers say. The only thing I ever have really worried about his show is the number of people who are going to go back to alpha rolls, despite the 10 warnings of do not try this at home during an episode. Hopefully no one tries to sue Cesar when they try to alpha roll their insane 130 lbs Rottweiler or something because "well, I saw it on the show..." <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

Man, poor guy...when it rains, it pours!

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/5/prweb379265.htm