The owner of Miska the cat has just triumphed in court, walking away with a $125,000 settlement after her legal team found numerous issues in the multiple violations that had been brought against the little and unassuming brown tabby.
Anna Danieli, a resident of Bellevue in Washington, Seattle, filed a legal action three years ago against various government-related defendants who she alleges overreached their positions by issuing more than 30 violations against Miska.
Ranging from trespassing to taunting other pets in the neighborhood, Miska was accused of committing a wide range of infractions and had managed to tot up $30,000 in fines that dated back as far as 2014.
Finally, in 2019, Danieli decided she’d had enough and alongside her attorneys, she began a three-year legal battle to clear the kitty’s name. “Miska is the most prosecuted cat in King County and in the City of Bellevue,” Jon Zimmerman, attorney for Miska’s owner, Anna Danieli, said in October 2020.
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So, why exactly did the lawsuit rest on governmental overreach? Well, according to Danieli, most of the apparent violations occurred on her neighbor's property, who is a well known animal control manager in the area.
In a case that became known as Danieli vs King County, attorneys also argued that the violations against Miska must be thrown out because the City of Bellevue had not properly updated their domestic cat code.
After a long and hard fought battle, Danieli and Miska emerged triumphant this week after the violations were overturned and they were awarded a settlement of $125,000. The court has also ordered the City of Bellevue to change its City Code and the way that civil offenses involving animals are dealt with and heard.
