Our neighbors have beautiful rose bushes in their garden next to my home. They don’t simply enjoy the roses in their backyard but they cut them and sell them at local farmer’s markets, give them to friends and family, make vases that they deliver to nursing homes, and even have entered them in competitions. They are prize-winning flowers. Last summer, one day that I let out my dogs in the back they got out and ate almost all of our neighbors’ roses. We have a fence but for some reason the gate was open that day.
- What would you have done if you were in our situation?
- Tell our neighbors?
- Take responsibility?
- Are the dogs responsible?
- What are we liable for?
- To whom and how much should we pay?
(א) אַרְבָּעָה אֲבוֹת נְזִיקִין, הַשּׁוֹר וְהַבּוֹר וְהַמַּבְעֶה וְהַהֶבְעֵר. לֹא הֲרֵי הַשּׁוֹר כַּהֲרֵי הַמַּבְעֶה, וְלֹא הֲרֵי הַמַּבְעֶה כַּהֲרֵי הַשּׁוֹר. וְלֹא זֶה וָזֶה, שֶׁיֵּשׁ בָּהֶן רוּחַ חַיִּים, כַּהֲרֵי הָאֵשׁ, שֶׁאֵין בּוֹ רוּחַ חַיִּים. וְלֹא זֶה וָזֶה, שֶׁדַּרְכָּן לֵילֵךְ וּלְהַזִּיק, כַּהֲרֵי הַבּוֹר, שֶׁאֵין דַּרְכּוֹ לֵילֵךְ וּלְהַזִּיק. הַצַּד הַשָּׁוֶה שֶׁבָּהֶן, שֶׁדַּרְכָּן לְהַזִּיק וּשְׁמִירָתָן עָלֶיךָ. וּכְשֶׁהִזִּיק, חָב הַמַּזִּיק לְשַׁלֵּם תַּשְׁלוּמֵי נֶזֶק בְּמֵיטַב הָאָרֶץ:
(1) There are four primary categories of damage: The Ox; the Pit; the Maveh, which refers either to the tooth of an animal that causes damage or to a person who causes damage; and Fire. Each of these categories is unique; therefore, the halakhot of one cannot be derived from another. ... The common denominator of the components in all of these primary categories is that it is their typical manner to cause damage, and the responsibility for their safeguarding to prevent them from causing damage is incumbent upon you, the owner of the animal or generator of the fire or the pit and is obligated to pay restitution for damage with best-quality land.
שֵׁן וָרֶגֶל הֵיכָא כְּתִיבִי? דְּתַנְיָא: ״וְשִׁלַּח״ – זֶה הָרֶגֶל, וְכֵן הוּא אוֹמֵר: ״מְשַׁלְּחֵי רֶגֶל הַשּׁוֹר וְהַחֲמוֹר״.
״וּבִעֵר״ – זוֹ הַשֵּׁן, וְכֵן הוּא אוֹמֵר: ״כַּאֲשֶׁר יְבַעֵר הַגָּלָל עַד תֻּמּוֹ״
The Gemara asks: Where are Eating and Trampling written in the Torah that led them to be classified as primary categories? The Gemara answers: The source is as the Sages taught in a baraita: The verse states: “If a person causes a field or vineyard to be eaten, and sends forth one's animal, and it consumed in the field of another” (Exodus 22:4). The two parts of the verse are referring to different categories: “And one sends forth,” this is a reference to the primary category of Trampling, as sending forth results in the animal trampling another’s produce and damaging it, and likewise it states: “Happy are you that sow beside all waters that send forth the feet of the ox and the donkey” (Isaiah 32:20). “And it consumed,” this is a reference to the primary category of Eating, and likewise it states: “And I will utterly sweep away the house of Jeroboam, as one consumes with the tooth until it be all gone” (I Kings 14:10).