Charleston, WV asked in Animal / Dog Law and Personal Injury for West Virginia

Q: Two different people ran over two of my dogs , in a 15 minute period , while I was tending to my dog whisper a car came

Flying down the road going about 80 and swerved intentionally and hit my other dog that was down their with me , me and my fiancé had our lights on so they definitely seen us , and my dog was on the side of the road where the gravel is . Neither car stopped . Is their anything we can do ?

1 Lawyer Answer

A: It appears from your question that you do not know the identity of either of the drivers. Without knowing who the drivers were, it would be impossible to take action against them. Even if you knew who the drivers were, a civil case would have limited value in West Virginia. West Virginia law considers dogs to be personal property, and the measure of your loss is based on the fair market value of your dogs, in other words what you could have sold the dogs for. You might also be able to make a claim for punitive damages if you could prove that the second driver ran over your dog on purpose, but any punitive damage award would be limited.

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