Barking Dog Cost Neighbor $500,000

By February 2015, a Seattle man named Woodrow Thompson had secured a default judgment worth more than $500,000 against his neighbor, a woman named Denise Norton, over her dog Cawper. Thompson accused Cawper of "raucously, wildly bellowing, howling, and explosively barking" and claimed that the noise caused him profound emotional distress. Norton considered the lawsuit a joke and failed to show up to the court, prompting the court to enter the judgment against her. After the sheriff posted notices warning that her home could be sold, Norton began fighting to have the judgment dismissed.

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