DULUTH, Minn. — A judge threw out a lawsuit Friday that had been filed by a man who struck and killed a dog on a highway, then sued the dog’s owners for damage to his car.

Jeffery Ely, of Cloquet, filed the lawsuit against Daniel Munthe, whose 13-pound miniature pinscher Fester was killed in January. Both parties represented themselves in conciliation court Friday.
Judge Gerald Maher said neither side could prove the other had been negligent, so he dismissed the suit.

“You don’t have a legal cause of action,” Maher said. “You never should have been here.”

The testimony was emotional at times, especially when Daniel Munthe’s wife Niki Munthe teared up when she told of retrieving Fester’s body from the road. She said she was letting her other dog in from outside at their home near Cloquet when Fester squeezed past her legs and escaped.

“He killed our dog,” she said. “Our dog had a soul. His car didn’t. His car is repairable. A soul is not.”

Ely said he was driving the posted speed limit of 55 mph that evening. He said he didn’t see the mostly black dog until it was too late. After hitting Fester, Ely turned around and used his car’s headlights to help the Munthes find his body.

It was only while driving home, Ely said, that he noticed his temperature gauge was out of whack. Fester’s impact on the front end of his 1997 Honda Civic pushed pieces of the bumper into the radiator, he said. His insurance wouldn’t cover the damage, so he sued the Munthes for $1,029 to cover the cost of repairs, time he took off work and court fees.

“The dog shouldn’t have been there,” he said. “Roads are for cars, not for dogs.”

The Munthes countersued for $2,400 for the time they had missed from work, as well as costs to cremate Fester and buy a replacement dog. The judge also dismissed that lawsuit.

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