Judge awards $45,480.12 in cat’s death

SEATTLE – A woman who sued a neighbor after his dog mauled her cat to death has been awarded more than $45,000, which her lawyer says is one of the largest ever for loss of a pet and possibly the biggest for a cat.

The case was filed in Seattle District Court by Paula Roemer, 71, a retired, junior high school teacher, after Yofi, her 12-year-old black-and-white shorthair, was attacked in her back yard in February 2004 by a black chow belonging to her neighbor, Wallace Gray.

The dog had repeatedly escaped in the past, partly because a fence on the neighbor’s side of the yard had large gaps, according to the lawsuit.

The death of the cat, which she had rescued and adopted as a kitten while visiting Jaffa, Israel — Yofi means pretty or beautiful in Hebrew — left Roemer with sleep disturbances, panic attacks and depression that caused her to begin smoking heavily, according to her claims.

In a decision announced Sunday by Adam P. Karp, Roemer’s lawyer, Seattle District Court Judge Barbara L. Linde awarded $45,480.12 in damages — $30,000 for the pet’s special value, $15,000 for emotional distress and the rest for cremation and counseling costs.

Gray, who served 21 days in jail and three months under house arrest for an animal control violation following the attack, did not appear in court for the lawsuit and was not represented by a lawyer, Karp said.

Saying he learned of the judge’s ruling from a reporter on Sunday, Gray asserted that an acquaintance was taking care of his dog at the time of the attack but left town before the trial.

“This is way out of hand. This is absolutely crazy,” Gray said. “I’m sorry she lost her cat, but I had no control over it.”

Karp, founder of the Washington State Bar Association’s Animal Law Section and an adjunct professor of animal law at Seattle University and the University of Washington, said the pet value tied a record jury award in Bluestone v. Bergstrom, a veterinary malpractice suit in California.

The total award is a rare court finding that indicates cats are as valuable to their owners as dogs, especially to someone who, like Roemer, lives alone except for her pets, he added.

“I think there tends to be a culture that says dogs are more of man’s best friends and cats are aloof and can’t bond,” Karp said, “but if anyone has ever shared their bonds with a cat, they know that’s utter nonsense.

“I think our society tends to devalue cats, and I think the judgment recognizes that cats, too, can mean the world to people.”

For a judge to make such an award also is significant, said Louis E. Wolcher, a torts expert at the University of Washington law school.

“Jurors can be expected to be swayed by emotional factors,” Wolcher said, “but you like to think that judges are more sober.”

Roemer said she doubted she would see any of the money but plans to donate anything she does collect to an animal protection group.

“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.”