The standard with dog bites is “reasonable precautions” to prevent them, thus a fence that failed because it was hit by a meteor could be a perfectly reasonable defense. People don’t build structures with rocks falling from the sky in mind. On the other hand a fence the dog can open or climb over is not, which of course depends on the dog.

I suspect the same would be considered for computer security. Hacker News and a Bank have very different bars for what’s reasonable.

Genuine question, would you not be held responsible in the US if a meteor hit your fence allowing your dog to get out and bite someone? I know that it was unpreventable but isn’t it still your dog and your responsibility?

You can be sued for anything but I suspect in this case the “Act of God” clause would come into pay and insurance would (or wouldn’t) cover it.

Eg if you had a known dangerous dog that had bitten twelve babies before but you didn’t destroy it, you’re up the creek even if it got out because of the meteor.

But if the dog only but because it’s tail got singed by the meteor, you’d probably be ok.

Nothing is absolutely guaranteed in the US legal system, but as I understand it it’s not legally your responsibility.

In the same way you may generally be responsible if you rear end someone, but if it was caused by someone rear ending you then that’s not your fault. That may seem obvious, but if someone stoped several car lengths back to lower the risk of someone getting hit if you’re rear ended. Thus the standard is reasonable precautions rather than requiring people to do absolutely anything possible.

36 states and DC have strict liability for dog bites. For most the only exceptions are if the person was trespassing when they were bitten, if they were provoking the dog, or it's a police/military dog doing its job. Some of those states have carve outs where they only have liability for expenses if they didn't know the dog was dangerous (I'm presuming that means no emotional/punitive damages).

Doesn't matter what precautions the person took, if the dog gets out and bites another person, they're liable in most states.

Interesting, my state is not on that list.

But that 36 state list includes many exceptions. Provocation is an exception in the majority of those 36 states, and trespassing is almost universally an exception. Nebraska excludes harm cases when the dog is being playful etc.