Published August 5, 2026 · By Terry W. Posey, Esq.

Ohio has long been one of the better states in the country to be a dog bite victim. You don't have to prove the dog had bitten anyone before. There is no "one free bite" here. Ohio's dog bite statute, R.C. 955.28(B), makes the "owner, keeper, or harborer" of a dog liable in damages for any injury the dog causes — no proof of carelessness required.

But that third word — harborer — just got a great deal smaller. On June 17, 2026, the Ohio Supreme Court decided L.H. v. Sun Secured Financing, L.L.C., 2026-Ohio-2219. Six weeks later, on July 30, an appellate court applied it in Schultz v. Ciras, Inc., 2026-Ohio-2967 and erased a jury verdict a bite victim had already won.

If you were bitten on rented property, in an apartment complex, in a manufactured-home community, or at a house owned by someone other than the dog's owner, this decision directly affects your case.

A Playground, a Leashed Dog, and Fifty Stitches

In October 2020, a boy identified in court records only as L.H. walked up to a playground at Oakwood Village, a manufactured-home community here in Montgomery County. A resident's dog had been tied by its leash to the swing set. When the boy approached, the dog bit him in the face. He needed more than 50 stitches.

The dog's owner never answered the lawsuit, so a default judgment was entered against her — a judgment that, as a practical matter, is often worth nothing at all. The real question was whether the company that owned the community could be held strictly liable as a harborer of that dog. The community allowed residents to keep dogs, and its rules expressly permitted leashed dogs in the common areas — including that playground.

The trial court said no. The Second District Court of Appeals — the court that hears appeals from Montgomery, Greene, Miami, Clark, Champaign, and Darke Counties — reversed and said yes, the community was a harborer. The Ohio Supreme Court then took the case and sided with the property owner.

What Actually Changed

For roughly eighty years, Ohio courts had defined a "harborer" by looking at the land. The Supreme Court moved the focus to the dog.

The Court's new rule is one sentence: to harbor a dog, "one must shelter, protect, or exercise control over it." Simply allowing someone else's dog to be on your property — even expressly, even in a common area — is not enough. As the Chief Justice put it, acquiescing to a dog's presence is something different from harboring it.

Two justices dissented, warning that the decision "upends decades of caselaw" that had been followed in eleven of Ohio's twelve appellate districts and written into the standard Ohio Jury Instructions, and that a change this large should come from the legislature rather than the courts.

Six Weeks Later, a $32,000 Verdict Disappeared

The consequences arrived quickly. In Schultz v. Ciras, Inc., Mary Schultz was jogging past a rural house in September 2019 when a loose pit bull confronted her in the road and began circling. She decided to walk the dog back toward its home and knocked on the door so someone could take it. The dog attacked the woman who came out, then turned on Ms. Schultz — biting the back of her thigh as she ran, then her arms and hands as she covered her face and throat. She needed x-rays to check for embedded teeth and 17 stitches.

The dog's owners had been discharged in bankruptcy, so the case proceeded against the company that owned the property — a company tied to the dog owner's great-uncle, who had bought the house so his nephew's family could live there rent-free and fix it up to buy later. A Mahoning County jury found the company was a harborer and awarded Ms. Schultz $32,000.

The Seventh District reversed and entered judgment for the property owner outright. Under the new definition, the company had never sheltered, protected, or controlled that dog — so there was nothing for a jury to weigh. One judge dissented, but the verdict was gone.

Who You Can Still Hold Responsible

The dog's owner is still strictly liable. Nothing in L.H. touched that. If a dog bites you, its owner owes you damages — full stop — unless you were trespassing or committing a crime at the time.

So is a "keeper." That is whoever had physical charge or care of the dog when it happened. If a neighbor was watching the dog for the weekend, or a friend was walking it, that person can be on the hook too.

A negligence claim is a separate path — and it survived. This is the part most people miss. In Beckett v. Warren, 2010-Ohio-4, the Ohio Supreme Court held that a bite victim may pursue both the statutory strict-liability claim and an old-fashioned common-law negligence claim in the same case. The negligence claim is harder — you must show the defendant knew the dog was vicious and kept it carelessly anyway — but it carries something the statute does not: the possibility of punitive damages. Notably, in the Schultz case, a negligence count had been pleaded but was not pursued at trial. When the statutory theory collapsed on appeal, nothing was left standing.

Insurance is usually the real question. A judgment against a dog owner with no assets and no policy is a piece of paper. Most dog bite recoveries come from a homeowner's or renter's liability policy. Some of those policies exclude certain breeds or cap animal-related claims, which is why identifying every available policy early matters as much as identifying every liable person.

What This Means Practically If You've Been Bitten

Build the case around the dog, not just the address. Who fed it? Who chained or leashed it? Who let it out? Who paid the vet? Whose name is on the dog license with the county auditor? Under the new rule, those facts are what create liability — and they are much easier to gather in the first weeks than a year later.

Get the animal control report. Photograph the wounds as they heal, not just on day one. Identify every witness before they move. And be careful about the deadline: under R.C. 2305.10, most bodily injury claims in Ohio must be filed within two years of the injury. Claims on behalf of children are treated differently, so ask rather than assume.

Dog bites are not minor cases. They leave scars in visible places, they cause lasting fear of dogs, and they happen disproportionately to children. Ohio law still gives victims a strong remedy — but after this summer, getting to the right defendant takes more care than it used to.

Talk to Someone Before You Sign Anything

If you or your child has been bitten in the Dayton area, don't let an insurance adjuster convince you the claim is worth a few thousand dollars because "the landlord isn't responsible." The landlord may not be — but that says nothing about what your claim against the responsible parties is worth.

At the Law Offices of Terry W. Posey, we've represented injured people across the Miami Valley for over 30 years. You can read more about how we handle personal injury claims, or about our work on wrongful death cases when an animal attack turns fatal.

The consultation is free, and you pay no fee unless we win. Call 937-236-6444.