Liability adjuster's thoughts on these emotional support animals

[Timothy W.]

I was discussing the issue of people obtaining prescriptions for "emotional support animals" with another landlord and began discussing it with him from a liability perspective.  One of the biggest exposures a landlord can have from these "emotional support animals" is that the law provides no limitation on what kind of animal a person can have as an emotional support animal and you are bound by law to not deny housing to a person with such a prescription.  Animals can cause quite a bit of damage to property and other tenants.  So what to do?

That's why I said to him, "What about the doctor who prescribed it?  He/she has liability insurance."  I began doing some digging and there is precedent that a doctor's prescription of medication that results in damage would expose the doctor to liability.  I've included an article below with a quote that is particularly interesting.  I'm just an adjuster and I have never had this scenario yet, but I know that if I were handling a dog bite liability claim from a prescribed emotional support animal I would be looking into the liability insurance of the prescribing doctor.  Can any attorneys out there comment on this one?  Would the prescribing doctor have some exposure?  If you have to rent to someone with an emotional support animal, can you require them to furnish a copy of their prescribing doctor's proof of liability insurance or at least the contact information for their doctor's office?  

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC270800...

In the vignette presented here, the final inquiry would be whether the claimants suffered compensable damages. If the patient in this case suffered significant bodily injury or psychological injury, liability might rest with the prescriber. In many states, the liability of the prescriber does not end with the damages to the patient and may extend to all of the untoward consequences of the accident, whether to the patient or to a third party.