Opinion ID: 7011523
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: California Court of Appeal Cases

Text: Most of the court of appeal cases support Donohue’s broad interpretation of the independent cause exception. For example: In Stapper v. GMI Holdings, Inc., 73 Cal.App.4th 787, 86 Cal.Rptr.2d 688 (1999), an injured firefighter sued the maker of a garage door that allegedly malfunctioned, trapping the firefighter in a burning garage. Although the plaintiffs injuries were the direct result of fire, the very danger that she arrived to confront, the court did not apply the firefighter’s rule to bar the plaintiffs suit against the manufacturer of the faulty garage door. Id. at 691. Instead, the court applied the independent cause exception because “the garage door’s malfunction was independent of the fire, and not caused by the fire.” Id. Similarly, in Malo v. Willis, 126 Cal. App.3d 543, 178 Cal.Rptr. 774 (1981) (per curiam), the court of appeal applied the independent cause exception when the instrumentality causing a police officer’s injury was the same one necessitating his presence at the scene of the accident. An officer who had stopped two motorists for speeding parked his patrol car between the two detained vehicles. Id. at 776. The defendant, who was one of the speeders, accidentally struck the police officer’s car from behind when he stepped on the clutch instead of the brake. The defendant told the officer that he was not used to driving a car with a manual transmission. Id. The court of appeal held that the independent cause exception applied because the negligence that caused the stop (the defendant’s speeding) was not the same negligence that caused the injury (the defendant’s unfamiliarity with a manual transmission), despite the fact that the same instrumentality (the defendant’s car) was both the reason for the officer’s presence at the scene and the cause of his injuries. Id. at 778 (“The risk did not result from the negligent act of speeding but from the entirely separate and independent act of driving an unfamiliar vehicle.”). Finally, in Terhell v. American Commonwealth Associates, 172 Cal.App.3d 434, 218 Cal.Rptr. 256, 257-58 (1985), a firefighter fell through an “unguarded and concealed opening in the roof’ in the course of performing his duties. (Internal quotation marks omitted.) The court held that the plaintiffs action was not barred by the firefighter’s rule because the rule “was not intended to bar recovery for independent acts of misconduct which were not the cause of the plaintiffs presence at the” scene, and “[h]aving an unguarded hole in the roof was not the cause of appellant’s presence at the scene.” Id. at 258, 260, 172 Cal.App.3d 434 (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). Other court of appeal cases that Defendants cite do not avail them. For example: In City of Oceanside v. Superior Court, 81 Cal.App.4th 269, 96 Cal.Rptr.2d 621 (2000), a lifeguard was injured as a result of following the allegedly negligent instructions of another lifeguard. In disallowing the action, the court relied heavily on the negative public policy consequences of holding one public safety officer responsible for the negligence of another in a joint operation. Id. at 626-31. Those considerations are absent from this case. In Kelhi v. Fitzpatrick, 25 Cal.App.4th 1149, 31 Cal.Rptr.2d 182, 183 (1994), a police officer on his way to work saw the wheels of a truck, which was several hundred feet in front of him, come off the truck’s axle. The officer immediately created a “traffic break” with his motorcycle so that other cars would not be struck by the rolling tires, but he was injured by the tires while doing so. Id. The court refused to apply the independent cause exception because the officer was injured by the very hazard to which he was responding, namely, the detached tires in the street: “The facts establish, as a matter of law, that [the officer] was injured by the very risk to which he responded in the fine of duty to protect the public.” Id. at 187. This case is distinguishable because there is evidence from which a fact-finder could conclude that Vasquez was not injured by the “very risk” that he was called to confront. In summary, the court of appeal cases on which Defendants rely do not support the proposition that Famam, rather than Donohue, correctly interprets the independent cause exception to the firefighter’s rule.