Kay Benstead, 60, is suing her friend after she broke her arm and hip when her Alsatian pulled her to the ground
A 60-year-old woman who broke her hip and arm when she was pulled to the ground by her friend’s Alsatian has today successfully sued her for £115,000.
Kay Benstead was walking her cockapoodle Freya with her friend Anne Finnie, 76, when the pair stopped at a cafe in Trent Park, Enfield, north London.
Mrs Benstead, a social worker, claimed her ‘consent was not asked for or given’ but her friend handed her the dog lead anyway.
She was then pulled backwards by her friend’s dog, Lily, and ended up breaking her arm and hip.
She subsequently launched a legal action against her and today a judge found Mrs Finnie had been ‘negligent’ in handling the excitable dog and ordered her to pay her friend damages.
Judge Peter Wulwick said Mrs Benstead and Mrs Finnie had known each other ‘for some years’ as work colleagues.
But the pensioner should have known the ‘young, large and lively’ German Shepherd might injure her more dog-wary pal when she handed it over to go buy drinks, the court heard.
A German Shepherd-lover, Mrs Finnie had owned dogs for years, but Mrs Benstead was a more ‘cautious’ owner, said the judge.
She had to be persuaded to buy Freya, her cocker spaniel-poodle mix, which was her first dog and weighed only 11 kilos.
On the other hand, Lily was a much bigger and more excitable dog, weighing in at three times more than Freya.
Mrs Benstead had only ever stroked Lily once, when she was a puppy, and would never have agreed to hold such a large animal, she said in her evidence.
Anne Finnie, 76, (pictured) has been accused of ‘thrusting’ her dog’s lead into Mrs Benstead’s hands
Disaster struck during the 2012 walk when the pair decided to stop at the park cafe and Mrs Finnie ‘thrust’ the more boisterous Lily’s lead into her friend’s hand.
The loop tightened around Mrs Benstead’s fingers and Lily almost immediately began to strain at the lead, pulling her back.
Judge Wulwick said: ‘The weight and force of the dog was too great and she fell over.’
Mrs Benstead told the court she felt immense pain when the dog began to pull the lead, twisting her arm behind her back.
In her damages claim, she said Mrs Finnie had not asked her to take the dog, and if she had, she would have refused.
But in her evidence during the trial this week, Mrs Finnie claimed her friend ‘had a chance to say no’ before the dog was handed over.
The friends stopped for coffees and snacks at a cafe in Trent Park, Enfield, north London (pictured)
Ruling against the pensioner, Judge Wulwick said she had ‘simply thrust’ the lead into Mrs Benstead’s hand from behind.
All she said was ‘take’ or ‘hold’, without making sure Lily was under control, and began to walk off.
He told the court: ‘I find that Lily’s lead had simply been thrust into Mrs Benstead’s hand, without any prior discussion.
‘She didn’t tell the dog to sit or stay. She didn’t ensure that Mrs Benstead was sitting down before leaving Lily with her.
‘Mrs Finnie appears to have headed off to the cafe without ensuring that Lily was handed over to Mrs Benstead safely.
‘She didn’t anticipate that, in handing over the dog in the way she did, physical injury might well result.
‘In my view, she should have done so.’
The judge said Mrs Finnie was ‘negligent’ in the way she handed over the dog’s lead without first checking Mrs Benstead was comfortable with it.
Judge Wulwick ordered that Mrs Finnie to pay Mrs Benstead £115,000 compensation, plus her costs of the case, which could run as high as another £100,000.