$1.62 Million Settlement After Rescue Pit Bull Bites Off Woman's Thumb in Mahwah, NJ

On March 13, 2021, Carol Olsen, 59, of Midland Park, New Jersey, went to visit a friend, Michael Cabibo, at his townhouse in Mahwah. Cabibo was temporarily fostering a pit bull named Alamo for Eleventh Hour Rescue, a Morris County animal rescue organization then seeking a permanent home for the dog. The dog had not been caged or muzzled.

When Alamo bit Olsen's leg, she reached down to push the dog away. The dog bit off her right thumb. Surgeons could not reattach it. The loss was immediate and lasting: Olsen worked as a bakery decorator at a Wyckoff supermarket, relying on fine motor control to pipe icing. She was unable to work in the months that followed. Even after she returned to the bakery, she could no longer perform decorating tasks with the same precision, and everyday activities like opening jars and putting on jewelry became difficult or impossible.

Olsen retained Christopher T. DiGirolamo of Maggiano, DiGirolamo and Lizzi in Fort Lee. The case named Eleventh Hour Rescue as the primary defendant on the theory that the rescue, as the organization that had placed the dog in foster care, bore responsibility for knowing the animal's temperament and for ensuring it was placed safely. Cabibo, as the dog's foster handler, was also a defendant. He carried no homeowner's insurance and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection during the litigation, which complicated the damages picture and made the rescue's liability the central issue.

Eleventh Hour Rescue filed a counterclaim against Cabibo. The case resolved on August 17, 2023, with a settlement of $1.62 million. According to Animals 24-7, the independent animal-welfare publication that covered the result, the payout represented the highest publicly disclosed settlement in a fostering-negligence case against an animal shelter at the time of resolution.

The New Jersey Law Journal covered the settlement in a staffed verdict-report article published October 3, 2023, citing DiGirolamo as plaintiff's counsel.