Court Opinion

ID: 9730648
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 15:19:32.940137+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:08.294471
License: Public Domain

HOPPER, J.
I concur in the judgment solely under the compulsion of the doctrine of stare decisis. If I were not so compelled and if sufficient empirical data were presented to the court as to the probable effect on the general public of the elimination of such a rule, I might very well decline to follow the fireman’s rule and would instead apply general negligence concepts. The viability of the fireman’s rule has been destroyed by the acute analysis of Moss in Comment, An Examination of the California Fireman’s Rule (1975) 6 Pacific L.J. 660. There is nothing to be served by an extensive discussion beyond a reference to that cogent comment. It has clearly demonstrated that the public policy considerations in favor of the rule pale dramatically in significance when compared to the existing countervailing considerations.
If, in fact, the sole logical basis for the fireman’s rule is that the fireman is merely being paid for what he does and he has been given added consideration in the form of higher compensation, early retirement, disability benefits, and worker’s compensation—, then the Legislature should be encouraged to increase the benefits which now are small surcease for sorrow to a severely injured person or family.
Furthermore, I read Rowland v. Christian (1968) 69 Cal.2d 108, 112 [70 Cal.Rptr. 97, 443 P.2d 561, 32 A.L.R.3d 496], as putting the burden on the advocates of the fireman’s rule to establish that an exception to the *55general principle is “clearly supported by public policy.” I do not believe that burden has been met.
In addition, it has been noted that many people today seriously question our present method of settling disputes and even the entire tort system. Nevertheless, so long as we continue to be governed by the present tort system, I shall continue to believe that it is essentially unjust to reduce firemen and other public safety officers to a lower status when injured that that accorded to others. The Legislature of this state has clearly spoken in Civil Code section 1714. Under the existing tort system I find it somewhat incongruous to place the burden of compensating public safety officers, for injuries received in the case of negligently caused fires, solely on the taxpayers as a whole, instead of initially on the negligent party as we do in other situations. The fireman’s rule is a derailment from the fundamental concept of liability for negligence. I would return to the track.