Brown v. General Elec. Corp.

• Decision Date: 03 December 1986
• Docket Number: Civ.A. No. 86-5-COL,86-119-COL.
• Citation: 648 F. Supp. 470
• Parties: Otto BROWN, Plaintiff, v. GENERAL ELECTRIC CORPORATION, Defendant. Brenda BROWN, Plaintiff, v. GENERAL ELECTRIC CORPORATION, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Georgia

648 F. Supp. 470

Otto BROWN, Plaintiff, v. GENERAL ELECTRIC CORPORATION, Defendant.

Brenda BROWN, Plaintiff, v. GENERAL ELECTRIC CORPORATION, Defendant.

Civ.A. Nos. 86-5-COL, 86-119-COL.

United States District Court, M.D. Georgia, Columbus Division.

December 3, 1986.

Fife M. Whiteside, Columbus, Ga., for plaintiffs.

Ben Kingree of Carter, Ansley, Smith & McLendon, Atlanta, Ga., for defendant.

OPINION AND ORDER ON MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

ELLIOTT, District Judge.

In Civil Action No. 86-5 above identified the Plaintiff, Otto Brown, a fireman, alleges that a defective coffee maker manufactured by the Defendant, General Electric, was the initiating cause of a residential fire and that he was injured while fighting the fire, and he seeks to recover damages from the Defendant based on theories of negligence and product liability. In Civil Action No. 86-119 Brenda Brown, the wife of Otto Brown, has brought a separate lawsuit against General Electric for loss of consortium. Both cases are now before the Court on the Defendant's motion for summary judgment.

There is no controversy concerning the material facts. Otto Brown is a part-time fireman in Richland, Georgia, and on July 13, 1984, in the discharge of his duties of employment as a fireman, he responded to a fire at the home of Donald G. Castleberry, and in the course of fighting the fire he was injured when he jumped off of the roof of the burning building after an explosion occurred. He alleges that the fire at the Castleberry home was caused by a coffee maker manufactured by the Defendant. The coffee maker was an item of personal property which was being used by the Castleberrys. Brown did not buy the coffee maker, had never used it, and had never seen it prior to the fire. He had been a member of the Richland Fire Department for 14 or 15 years and had had previous experience fighting other fires of the same size as the Castleberry fire and he knew that explosions in fires are not unusual or extraordinary events. He received statutory worker's compensation benefits following his injuries.

The Defendant contends that the Plaintiff Brown assumed the risk of injury as a matter of law, citing the Fireman's Rule which precludes a fireman from bringing an action against the one whose negligence allegedly caused the fire if the injuries sustained were a result of known risks associated with fighting fires.

This being a diversity case the Court must apply Georgia law, and in attempting to do so it is noted that the Supreme Court of Georgia has not been asked to adopt the Fireman's Rule per se and has not yet expressly addressed the rule. The Defendant suggests, however, that the existing case law in Georgia indicates that, once confronted with the issue, the Georgia Supreme Court would adopt the Fireman's Rule because the doctrine of assumption of the risk is viable in Georgia. A review of the trend nationwide and of the existing law in Georgia on assumption of the risk seems to support the Defendant's contention.

Virtually all of the jurisdictions which have addressed the issue have adopted the Fireman's Rule and have held that the rule precludes a fireman injured while fighting a fire from bringing an action against the party whose negligence allegedly caused the fire. In fact, the Maryland Court of Appeals has held that:

"Other jurisdictions are almost unanimous in denying recovery by an injured fireman from one whose sole connection with the injury is that his negligence caused the fire."

Flowers v. Sting Security, Inc., et al, 488 A.2d 523, 532, 62 Md.App. 116 (1985). To the same effect are Armstrong v. Mailand, 284 N.W.2d 343 (Minn.Sup.Ct.1979); Lipson v. Superior Court of Orange Co., 31 Cal.3d 362, 182 Cal.Rptr. 629, 644 P.2d 822 (1982); Mahoney v. Carus Chemical Co., 510 A.2d 4, 102 N.J. 564 (1985); Aravanis v. Eisenberg, 237 Md. 242, 206 A.2d 148 (1965); Grable v. Varela, 115 Ariz. 222, 564 P.2d 911 (1977); Walters v. Sloan, 20 Cal.3d 199, 142 Cal.Rptr. 152, 571 P.2d 609 (1977); Fletcher v. Illinois Central & Gulf Railroad Co., 679 S.W.2d 240 (Ky.Ct. App.1984) policeman instead of fireman; Buchanan v. Prickett & Son, Inc., 279 N.W.2d 855 (203 Neb. 684, 1979); Steelman v. Lind, 634 P.2d 666 (97 Nev. 425, 1981) highway patrolman; and Ferraro v. Demetrakis, 400 A.2d 1227, 167 N.J.Super. 429 (1979).

The doctrine of assumption of the risk is so well recognized in Georgia where recovery is sought on a negligence theory that the Court does not deem it necessary to cite specific cases in which the principle has been applied. Typically, however, is Owens-Illinois, Inc. v. Bryson, 138 Ga.App. 78 (1976), that being a negligence action brought against the operator of a chemical plant by a contractor employee who developed leukemia as a result of being exposed to chemicals while working on the replacement of waste lines, it being decided that he was barred from recovery because he assumed the risk of working around such chemicals.

The Court is not unaware that questions of assumption of risk are usually questions which must be resolved by a jury, but when the evidence is plain and undisputed the trial court can determine as a matter of law that certain facts do or do not constitute negligence.

In Georgia the doctrine of assumption of the risk is also a defense to strict liability actions. See Parzini v. Center Chemical Company, 136 Ga.App. 396 (1975) and Deere & Company v. Brooks, 250 Ga. 517 (1983).

In this case the injury suffered by the Plaintiff Brown after jumping off a burning building is one of the precise risks a fireman knows he will confront when fighting fires, and in the Court's view he unquestionably assumed the risk of being forced to jump off the roof of the house if the dangers of staying on the roof outweighed the dangers of jumping off. In fact the Plaintiff's own testimony by deposition makes this clear. He was an experienced fireman, having been on the Richland Fire Department approximately 15 years, he had previously fought fires of this magnitude, and he knew that explosions during a fire are not unusual events, so the fact that he jumped off the roof was a risk he knew was associated with fire fighting, and when he in the discharge of his duties as a fireman went to fight the fire at the Castleberry home he assumed all the inherent risks.

Consistent with the foregoing, the Court concludes that the Fireman's Rule should apply in this case to bar the Plaintiff from bringing an action against the manufacturer of a product which may have caused the fire, this Court anticipating that the Georgia Supreme Court would follow the majority of jurisdictions in applying the Fireman's Rule in such cases.¹

Any action by Brown based on negligence or strict liability is barred by the Fireman's Rule.

Even if it should be ultimately determined that the Fireman's Rule does not apply in Georgia, the Defendant's motion for summary judgment in this case must still be granted for another reason, that being that any defect in the Defendant's coffee maker could not be considered as...