It’s both.
We actually represent a lot of mail carriers in dog bite cases. The U.S. Post Office has a large number of protocols for mail carriers in an effort to protect them from dog bites. It’s one of the postal service’s largest worker’s compensation areas. That’s simply because postal carriers are going up to a door, they’re ringing the door bell, the dog gets aggravated, then the mail goes through the slot, and the dog gets even more aggravated, which frequently leads to mail carriers getting bitten.
When a mail carrier is injured in a dog attack, it is a worker’s compensation claim for the carrier, and it is also a liability claim against the homeowner for allowing the dog to attack the mail carrier.
If recovery is made against the homeowner, the federal government’s worker’s compensation fund is reimbursed from the personal injury recovery for the amounts that it has disbursed under the workers compensation claim.
