On Jan. 14, 2010, plaintiff Evelyn Ginsberg, 87, walked over to the house of her next door neighbor, Esther Gottstein, in Van Nuys. She claimed that when she walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell, Gottstein’s Chihuahua, which had been tied in the front yard, barked loudly and startled her, causing her to lose her balance and fall. Ginsberg fractured her right hip in the fall. Ginsberg sued Gottstein, alleging that the defendant was negligent and strictly liable for harboring an abnormally dangerous animal. Specifically, she claimed that the Chihuahua was vicious and that Gottstein was negligent for knowingly tying the dog to the front yard, where it could bark at passersby. Defense counsel contended that Ginsberg was found 12 feet away from the front door and that she was out of reach of the dog. Accordingly, counsel argued that the accident did not involve a knockdown by a dog, so there was no liability on the part of Gottstein. The defense’s animal behavior expert testified that the dog would have been alerted by Ginsberg entering the front yard by opening the side gate, and that Chihuahuas are highly reactive, rating a 9-out-of-10 on a reactivity scale. As such, the expert opined that it was unlikely the dog would have come to the front door., Ginsberg was transported by ambulance to a hospital, where it was determined that she had fractured her right hip. On Jan. 16, 2010, Ginsberg underwent a hip replacement, whereby the femoral head was removed and replaced with an artificial one. Ginsberg testified that, where she could do everything fine before, after the surgery, it was completely different. She also claimed that one leg is now shorter than the other. Defense counsel noted that both the plaintiff’s and defense’s orthopedic surgery experts opined that Ginsberg received a good result from the hip replacement and though it seemed like one leg was shorter than the other, it was not the case.