Zarek v. Fredericks‪.‬

The defendant appeals from a judgment against him in the District Court rendered in favor of the minor plaintiff, Vincent Zarek, and a second judgment in favor of the minors mother. The basis of each recovery is the damage claimed to the respective interests of each plaintiff when Vincent was bitten by a dog owned and kept by the defendant at his summer resort hotel in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, where the mother and son were vacation guests.There is no dispute concerning the defendants ownership and possession of the dog, nor the fact that the dog bit the minor plaintiff as the boy leaned over to pet the dog while it lay near the hotel, shortly after midday. Federal jurisdiction is invoked because of diversity of citizenship, but the question of defendants liability is purely one of Pennsylvania law, and, therefore, governed, so far as applicable, by the decisions of the Pennsylvania courts.