Opinion ID: 1443160
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: issue of dnr duty as landowner never submitted to the jury

Text: As discussed earlier, the liability of the State as a landowner was never presented to the jury. Thus, the majority cannot assume that there was sufficient evidence that DNR was negligent in allowing the escape of fire from its land.  (Italics mine.) Majority, at 280. The evidence demonstrates that DNR was being charged with negligence as a public fireman, not as a landowner. Respondents introduced evidence attempting to show that DNR fire fighting procedures, in the subject fire, were substandard and defective. The categories of negligence charged against DNR included: (1) failure to use aerial reconnaissance after a lightning storm; (2) failure to attack the fire aggressively and continuously; (3) failure to prioritize the numerous lightning-caused fires; (4) failure to effectively use available resources to extinguish the fire; and (5) general overall failure of DNR management in fighting the fire. The actions or alleged lack of actions that are at issue concern DNR's judgment in responding and fighting the Barker Mountain fire in its public fire fighting capacity. Thus, the facts of this case preclude the majority from assuming the jury found DNR negligent as a landowner. Instead, the only thing that the majority can assume is that the jury found DNR negligent in carrying out its statutory mandate to suppress forest fires. Under the public duty doctrine, DNR owes no individual actionable duty to plaintiffs and therefore as a matter of law is not negligent as to individual plaintiffs.