Court Opinion

ID: 9714244
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:33:42.079718+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:24.562261
License: Public Domain

HOFFMAN, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. As noted by the majority, an inspector is employed to confirm that contractors are complying with building codes and some risk is inherent in performing inspection duties. The very nature of the position requires inspectors to enter premises in various stages of completion and ferret out dangerous, i.e. non-complying, construction techniques or materials. The inspector is employed by a governmental entity to protect the public.
To say that fire fighters and police officers must be distinguished from all other public employees otherwise no public employee could recover for injuries sustained due to danger, ignores the obvious. The terms within the definition of the fireman's rule necessarily narrow the group of public employees to which it can be applied. Here, the inspector is a public safety professional whose occupation by its nature exposes him to particular risks. His injuries were sustained while performing his inherently dangerous duties for the public. As with fire fighters, police officers and paramedics; building inspectors should have "no reasonable expectation that the property has been made safe for [their] arrival." See Majority op. p. 385. In fact it is quite the opposite, the building inspector is employed to determine possible safety risks found at the property while it is in various stages of completion.
Further, it is of no moment that the inspector may have been called to the home to inspect something different than the portion of the work upon which he was injured. As repeatedly noted above, inspectors are exposed to construction sites during various stages of completion. Requesting an inspection of one portion of the work does not warrant that all other components are free from danger. Exposure to incomplete and dangerous construction work is not a hidden danger to building inspectors. I would vote to affirm.