A horse is a horse, of course. But only a person can be a plaintiff.
So ruled the Oregon Court of Appeals, declaring Wednesday that a horse dubbed Justice had no legal ability to file a lawsuit or assert his rights at trial.
“Oregon common law reveals no instance in which an animal, or a representative for that animal, has been permitted to bring a lawsuit to vindicate the animal’s own ostensible rights,” Presiding Judge Darleen Ortega wrote in the unanimous opinion.
“Only human beings and legislatively created legal entities are persons with the capacity to sue under Oregon common law,” she continued.
The ruling is a blow to animal rights activists who have employed legal stratagems for decades in hopes of granting animals the same entitlements as humans. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2018 shot down a copyright infringement case filed over the selfies taken by a monkey named Naruto.
In this case, Justice’s lawyers sought at least $100,000 from his former owner, 55-year-old Gwendolyn D. Vercher of Cornelius, claiming she abandoned the American Quarter Horse to starve and freeze for months, leading to lifelong injuries that continue to require treatment.
Justice, then known as Shadow, was about 300 pounds underweight and suffering from various maladies when Vercher’s neighbor persuaded her to seek veterinary care, leading to criminal charges against her in 2017, court papers allege.
“Oregon law recognizes that animals themselves can be victims of animal cruelty,” said Stephen Wells, who helped spearhead the suit as executive director of the Animal Legal Defense Fund. “Justice is a victim — why should anyone but his abuser be responsible for paying medical bills and other costs caused by her cruelty?”
The Defense Fund said Thursday it will petition the Oregon Supreme Court to hear the case.
Vercher subsequently pleaded guilty to first-degree animal neglect and was sentenced to three years of probation with restitution of about $4,000 to Kim Mosiman, who took the horse to her Troutdale nonprofit, Sound Equine Options.
The lawsuit was filed in 2018 in Washington County Circuit Court, with Justice listed as the plaintiff and Mosiman as his legal guardian. Circuit Judge John Knowles tossed the suit later that year and awarded $1,500 in attorney’s fees to Vercher.
While Oregon law allows guardians to sue on behalf of children and incapciated people, it doesn’t extend to animals, Ortega said.
It is dubious that humans could ever understand what an animal truly wants, she wrote, suggesting that changing the horse’s name from Shadow to Justice underlined how beasts can “be wielded to (further) particular human or institutional goals.”
“While it is reasonable to presume that a horse like Justice — or any animal that is dependent on a human to meet its basic needs — wants to be afforded minimum care, it does not necessarily follow that a neglected horse would want to achieve that goal by suing his former owner for damages in tort,” she wrote.
Mosiman and an attorney for Vercher did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
