Angela F., a ten year old, was badly bitten around the mouth and nose by a Pit Bull Terrier named Trouble. Angela was alone with the dog at the time of the attack, so no one knew exactly what had happened.

Angela’s wounds, which were hideous, were skillfully repaired by a plastic surgeon at a local hospital emergency room. The surgeon did an excellent job, and Angela had only one small indentation under her lower lip, which today is hardly noticeable.

The insurance carrier for the dog’s owner refused to offer Angela’s parents any more than $20,000.00, claiming the dog had never been known to be vicious, and that Angela had teased the dog once before.

The parents came to us and we filed a lawsuit against the dog's owner. The dog’s owner was deposed (questioned under oath before trial) about his statement that Angela had teased the dog. When closely questioned, the defendant admitted that he had only seen Angela push the dog away when she was outdoors because she appeared to be afraid of it. The owner still insisted, however, that the dog had never gone after anyone before.

In talking to Angela’s mother, we learned that a local postman claimed to have had a problem with the dog. However, he had left the postal service over a year before the incident.

We decided that we had better track him down. We wrote to the local postmaster, who agreed to give us the postman’s name when we told him about Angela; however, he couldn’t legally give us the man’s address. Therefore, we turned to one of our investigative groups, who, using computers, were able to search a data base of all people with the postman’s name. We turned up four "possibles" in the state of Pennsylvania. We contacted the closest one. He was our man.

He gave us a statement detailing how the dog had attacked him, several months prior to the incident involving Angela, ripping at his mail sack while the owner just stood by and watched.

The insurance company settled for three times their original offer.

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