Assume that you are working at a small personal injury firm in Birmingham, Alabama as a paralegal and that you are assisting a solo attorney. A client named Jimmy Varney, who is an online college professor, walks into your office on June 28, 2022, and tells you the following story:

In May 2021, Mr. Varney traveled to New York to visit his father with his wife and daughter. While Mr. Varney checked his work emails in the family's room in a no-frills motel, his wife and daughter went down to the pool to waste some time before dinner. As his wife and daughter attempted to leave the pool area and head in the direction of the elevator, Mr. Varney's daughter, who was five years old at the time, saw an elderly couple entering the pool area with a Boston Terrier dog wearing a red "service dog" vest. Because the Varney family owns a Boston Terrier and because the daughter had never seen a Boston Terrier "service dog," Mr. Varney's daughter bent down to pet the dog. At the same time, the dog's owners tried to tell the daughter not to pet their dog because he was vicious.

As Mr. Varney's daughter leaned down, the dog took a bite of her face. The bite resulted in the need for plastic surgery and now the daughter is deadly afraid of dogs. Mr. Varney later learned that the elderly couple never had the dog trained as a service dog. Instead, the elderly couple, who both suffer from recognized disabilities, purchased the red "service dog" vest on the internet. Mr. Varney asks if he can sue the hotel or the elderly couple for his daughter's injuries.

The material above are your attorney's notes of the story that Mr. Varney told him. For purposes of this assignment, assume that your attorney is a member of the New York State Bar, but that he does a majority of his legal work in Alabama. Because he is not familiar with New York law on the various issues raised by this situation, he asked you to do some legal research on the legal issues raised by Jimmy Varney's situation.

Using Nexis Uni, please locate any applicable New York law that may govern Mr. Varney's situation. Specifically, please locate any applicable New York statutes as well as several New York cases that have interpreted the applicable New York statutes. Make sure that you address: (a) whether Mr. Varney could sue the elderly couple and/or the hotel, and (b) if he sues them, what the likely defenses that each party may raise. Please also note any additional facts that you may need to research to assess the merits of Mr. Varney's potential claims.