Canadian Man Ordered to Repay $5,000 in Yorkshire Terrier Bite Lawsuit

Photo by Sam Lion

A B.C. (British Columbia, Canada) Supreme Court judge has overturned a 2023 ruling that awarded $5,000 to a man who was bitten on his lower leg by a Yorkshire terrier named Flex.

In a decision issued on October 2, Judge Warren Milman ordered Robert Rae to repay the $5,000 and reimburse the dog’s owners, Dr. Samir Hanna Gadalla and his wife, Rofah Boulis Abdel-Malik, $2,500 in special costs.

“The plaintiff had no entitlement to the $5,000 he recovered pursuant to the order because he had already been more than fully compensated with the $8,500 he received from the [other defendants] prior to the commencement of the trial,” Judge Milman stated. “The injury he sustained was not a divisible one.”

Rae had originally sought between $30,000 and $35,000 in damages from Flex’s owners. However, the couple argued that Rae had not been bitten but merely scratched, and that he had provoked Flex by accidentally stepping on the dog’s paw on October 12, 2018, in the Yaletown building where they all resided. They claimed that if they were found liable, the compensation should be capped at $2,500.

Judge Milman did not agree with the couple’s account of events. “I have concluded that Mr. Rae did not accidentally provoke Flex by stepping on him,” he said. “Rather, the more likely explanation for what occurred is that Flex was behaving aggressively and barking from the moment that Mr. Rae got on the elevator, and that Flex then lunged and bit Mr. Rae without provocation.”

The incident took place after Rae had finished his morning workout and entered the elevator with Abdel-Malik and Flex. “Flex was on a leash and barking. Just as the doors opened at his floor, Flex bit him on the back of his left leg, below the knee, drawing blood,” Milman noted. Rae denied stepping on or stumbling over Flex before the bite occurred.

Rae sought medical attention for his injury after reporting the incident to the building concierge, who called an ambulance. Paramedics arrived to treat the wound.

Abdel-Malik, however, provided a different version of events, claiming that Rae had stumbled and accidentally stepped on Flex. She recalled noticing Flex whining and in pain after the encounter, struggling to put weight on one of his paws. Her account was supported by her son, who observed Flex limping later that day.

In the October 2 decision, Judge Milman reviewed a request from Gadalla and Abdel-Malik to overturn the earlier ruling. A previous attempt to declare a mistrial had been denied.

Milman pointed out that Rae had named four defendants in the case, including the strata corporation and the property management company. However, the latter two parties settled with Rae for $8,500 shortly before the trial commenced in June 2023.

Following the trial, Gadalla and Abdel-Malik’s lawyer asked Rae’s legal team to disclose the settlement amount so that it could be deducted from any damages awarded. Rae’s lawyer initially refused to reveal the settlement details, citing settlement privilege. However, in January 2024, Gadalla and Abdel-Malik filed a formal request for the settlement agreement, which was eventually produced.

With this new information, Judge Milman ruled that Rae was not entitled to the $5,000 he had previously been awarded. “The amount received in the settlement was no longer privileged once the prospect of double recovery arose,” Milman explained. “Before the order was entered, that amount [the $8,500] should have been deducted from the award so as to reduce the damages payable by [Gadalla and Abdel-Malik] to zero.”