Preface to Second Tentative Draft
The materials in this casebook are selected to represent the full range
of legal issues raised by horses and the horse industry in modern American
society. The issues raised by these
materials cut across a broad range of legal fields: torts, contracts, land use
regulation, insurance, employment relations, taxation, administrative law,
criminal law and constitutional law.
There is a remarkable volume of contemporary litigation involving horses
and the horse industry. New
appellate opinions are delivered each week.
The Equine Law and Horsemanship Safety web site, hosted by the Tarlton
Law Library of the University of Texas School of Law and maintained by the
American Association for Horsemanship Safety, contains well over 500 appellate
opinions involving horses. While
one might think of horse litigation as being largely a pre-internal combustion
engine phenomenon, nothing could be more incorrect.
Ninety-five percent of those 500 plus opinions were decided in 1995 or
later. Go to www.law.utexas.edu/dawson/
and then to Law Cases for Horsemen.
The appellate opinions are selected for their presentation of intriguing
and provocative facts and for the quality of their legal analyses.
That is not to say that each is a paragon of legal reasoning, but we have
avoided the temptation to select opinions to illustrate mistakes in analysis.
We have freely chosen opinions without regard to whether the deciding
court ordered the opinion to be published or unpublished.
Often, an unpublished opinion is the best source of discussion of an
issue. There is no prohibition on educational use of an unpublished
opinion, only on citing it to a court as legal authority.
We have chosen opinions from state and federal courts in all parts of the
United States. The materials, therefore, do not comprehensively illustrate
the law of any particular jurisdiction.
One theme of these materials is that lawyers and society in general do
not understand horse physiology and psychology or the standards and practices of
the horse industry sufficiently to evaluate horse legal issues adequately.
Accordingly, some of the materials focus on that lack of understanding
and suggest alternative solutions to legal issues based a more accurate view of
the horse world.
A second theme is the role of the attorney as client counselor and the
ability of the lawyer to prevent legal problems from arising by preventative
client counseling. Following many
of the opinions there are Notes and Questions that contain materials in
condensed form and that pose questions raised by the materials they follow.
As can be seen from most of the Questions, their intended focus is on the
role of the attorney as counselor to horse professionals.
When we taught the course in Equine Law at the University of Texas School
of Law from the casebook, the bulk of class time was devoted to applying the
legal materials assigned to various hypothetical settings in which the students
are required to imagine what advice they would give to a horse professional
client that might have avoided the legal problems under discussion.
That approach has proven itself to be very effective.
Jan Dawson
Robert O. Dawson
Austin, Texas
December 2002
The Horse and the Law
Table of
Contents
Chapter 1.
The Horse in Modern American Society..................1
A. The American Horse Industry...................................1
1. The American Horse Council Study........................2
2. The United States Department of Agriculture Study.......3
B.
The Nature of the Horse.......................................5
1.
The Horse's Greatest Fear...............................6
2.
Characteristics that Protect the Horse..................6
3.
What Makes the Horse Want to Flee or Fight..............7
4.
Overcoming the Flee/Fight Reflex........................8
5.
How the Horse Likes To Be Touched.......................9
6.
A Horse is a Herd Animal................................9
7.
A Word About Response..................................10
C. The Changing Relationship of Horses to Humans................11
Chapter 2. Equine Activity Statutes.............................13
A.
A Typical Statute............................................13
B.
What Is an Inherent Risk?....................................17
C.
What Is an Equine Activity?..................................27
D.
What Persons Are Protected?..................................29
E. Posting and Notice Requirements..............................33
Chapter 3. Releases from Liability and Assumption of Risk.......41
A.
Issues of Release Validity and Construction..................41
B.
Releases for Children........................................49
C. Assumption of Risk...........................................59
Chapter 4. Riding Instructor’s Liabilities......................65
A.
The Duty to Provide a Safe Riding Lesson.....................65
B.
Continuing Duty to Provide a Safe Lesson.....................70
C. Licensing Instructors........................................73
Chapter 5. Mounted Accidents....................................84
A.
Social Guests................................................84
B.
Environmental Hazards........................................92
C.
Abnormally Dangerous Propensities...........................103
D. Guided Trail Rides..........................................107
Chapter 6. Ground Accidents....................................113
A.
Grooming Accidents..........................................113
B.
Loading Accidents...........................................115
C.
Kicking and Biting..........................................117
D. Injuries to Professionals Servicing Horses..................128
Chapter 7. Containment of Horses...............................134
A.
The Duty to Confine.........................................134
B.
Fencing Laws................................................138
C.
Open Range Laws.............................................145
D. Third-Party Liability........................................173
E. Criminal Liability..........................................181
Chapter 8.
Land Occupier’s Liabilities.........................187
A.
Trespassers.................................................189
B.
Social Guests...............................................192
C.
Business Invitees...........................................200
D.
Boarded Horses..............................................205
E. Children....................................................210
Chapter 9. Land-Use Disputes...................................216
A.
Regulating Horse Density....................................216
B.
Regulating Horse-Related Structures.........................226
C.
Environmental Regulation....................................229
D. Agricultural Protection Acts................................238
Chapter 10. Transfer of Ownership of Horses....................246
A.
Sale by Private Treaty......................................246
B.
Sale by Public Auction......................................257
C. Interstate Sales............................................264
Chapter 11. Contractual Issues in Conducting a Horse Business..270
A.
Contracts for Boarding Horses...............................270
B.
Contracts for Services to Horses............................275
C. Contracts for Hauling Horses................................281
D. Forms of Business Association...............................288
Chapter 12. Insurance..........................................301
A.
Homeowner’s Insurance Coverage..............................301
B.
Farm and Ranch Insurance Coverage...........................313
C.
Automobile Insurance Coverage...............................317
D.
Business Liability Coverage.................................320
E. Equine Mortality and Loss of Use Coverage...................332
Chapter 13. Employment.........................................340
A.
Injuries by Employees.......................................340
B.
Injuries to Employees: Insurance
Coverage..................344
C.
Injuries to Employees: Worker’s
Compensation...............351
D. Volunteers..................................................362
Chapter 14. Taxation...........................................370
A.
Income Taxes: The Hobby Rule................................370
B. Property Taxes: Appraisal and Exemptions....................383
Chapter 15. Injuries to Horses.................................393
A.
Abuse or Neglect by Owners..................................393
B.
Horse Protection Act........................................402
C.
Killing Horses for Insurance................................410
D.
Veterinary Malpractice......................................414
E. Equine Infectious Anemia....................................427
Chapter 16. Horse Registration.................................435
A.
Registration................................................435
B.
Registration Cancellation...................................444
C. Ownership Disputes..........................................451
Chapter 17. Horse Showing......................................454
A.
Show Recognition............................................454
B.
Performance Evaluation......................................462
C. Membership Suspension and Expulsion.........................466
Chapter 18. Horse Racing.......................................478
A.
Disputes Over Purses........................................478
B.
Injuries to Jockeys: Worker’s Compensation..................490
C.
Injuries to Jockeys: Common
Law Actions....................496
D.
Suspension and Expulsion: Grounds...........................508
E. Suspension and Expulsion: Procedures.......................521