Carson v. Headrick

• Decision Date: 05 June 1995
• Citation: 900 S.W.2d 685
• Parties: James Richard CARSON, and Trina Denise Carson, and Matthew Gray Baird, Plaintiffs/Appellants, v. Judith Green HEADRICK, Defendant/Appellee.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

Page 685

900 S.W.2d 685

James Richard CARSON, and Trina Denise Carson, and Matthew Gray Baird, Plaintiffs/Appellants, v. Judith Green HEADRICK, Defendant/Appellee.

Supreme Court of Tennessee at Knoxville.

June 5, 1995.

Ward S. Whelchel, C. Edward Daniel, Knoxville, for appellant.

Janet L. Hogan, Hogan & Hogan, Knoxville, for appellee.

OPINION

ANDERSON, Chief Justice.

We granted this appeal to determine whether we should reaffirm or abandon the policemen and firemen's rule, which precludes firefighters and police officers from recovering damages for injuries arising out of risks peculiar to their employment.

We are persuaded that sound public policy considerations support the continuation of the rule based on the nature of the duty of police officers and the relationship between the officers and the public they protect. We, therefore, conclude that a citizen calling for police assistance owes no duty of ordinary care to responding police officers who are injured. We also conclude, however, that a duty of care is owed where police officers are injured by a citizen's intentional, malicious, or reckless misconduct. In so holding, we reaffirm the policemen and firemen's rule and adopt its principal exception.

The Court of Appeals upheld a trial court summary judgment for the citizen on the ground that the police officers had assumed the risk. Since our decision is based on the reaffirmation of the policemen and firemen's rule, we affirm the Court of Appeals' decision, as modified, on the separate grounds set out below.

BACKGROUND

At approximately 4:30 p.m. on October 16, 1991, the defendant, Judith Headrick, called the Knox County, Tennessee, emergency 911 service to report a potential domestic disturbance at her home in West Knox County. Specifically, Headrick informed the 911 dispatcher that she was at a truck park near her home and needed a police officer to accompany her to her home to pick up some personal belongings because her husband, Jerry Headrick, had threatened to "destroy everything" if she was not home by 5:30 p.m. She reported to the dispatcher that he was violent at times; that he had been drinking and had guns in the house. The 911 dispatcher conveyed this information to the sheriff's department, along with instructions to meet the defendant.

The plaintiffs, James Carson and Matthew Baird, patrol officers with the Knox County Sheriff's Department, met Headrick at the Flying J Travel Plaza, and after a brief conversation, accompanied her to her nearby home. Officer Carson was in the lead driving a sheriff's department cruiser, followed by Headrick in her own car, who in turn was followed by Officer Baird in another sheriff's department cruiser. As the vehicles arrived, Jerry Headrick began firing a "30.06" caliber rifle, with a scope sight from a concealed position in or near the Headricks' mobile home. Both officers were struck by the gunfire--Carson in his upper body and arm, and Baird in his right hand and on the right side of his head. After wounding the officers, Jerry Headrick killed himself.

Later, Officers Carson and Baird filed suit against Judith Headrick charging that their injuries were caused by her negligent failure to communicate to them her actual knowledge of threats made by her husband and her actual knowledge that her husband possessed a "30.06" deer rifle with a scope sight.

Headrick moved for summary judgment, relying upon the policemen and firemen's rule for the proposition that she had no duty to warn the police officers of the dangers involved in responding to a citizen's call for assistance because the risks were obvious and should have been readily apparent to the officers who were experienced in responding to violent situations. Headrick also contended that the intentional acts of Jerry Headrick were the superseding, intervening cause of the plaintiffs' injuries and that the plaintiffs assumed the risk.

In response, the plaintiffs argued that Headrick had a duty to warn. They filed an affidavit in which Carson stated that when he and Baird spoke with Headrick at the Flying J Travel Plaza before proceeding to her home, she said that her husband, Jerry Headrick, had never displayed signs of physical abuse toward her; that he had never engaged in altercations with law enforcement officers; and that the type of firearms Jerry Headrick had in his possession were "hunting weapons." Attached to Carson's affidavit was a petition for an order of protection whereby Judith Headrick had sought protection from Jerry Headrick three years earlier, and in which she alleged that Jerry Headrick had physically abused her and threatened that if she came back home "he would shoot me and any police officers with me."

The trial court judge granted the defendant's motion for summary judgment, but failed to state the ground for sustaining the motion. The Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that the plaintiff had assumed the risk. A few weeks later this Court released its decision in Perez v. McConkey, 872 S.W.2d 897 (Tenn.1994), in which the doctrine of implied assumption of risk was abolished. We granted the plaintiffs' appeal to consider the viability of the policemen and firemen's rule. For the reasons articulated below, we now reaffirm the rule which precludes negligence actions by firemen and policemen who are injured by a risk peculiar to their employment.

POLICEMEN AND FIREMEN'S RULE

The policemen and firemen's rule precludes firefighters and police officers from recovering damages for injuries arising out of risks peculiar to their employment. The rule originated over one hundred years ago in Gibson v. Leonard, 143 Ill. 182, 32 N.E. 182 (1892). In determining the nature and extent of the duty owed a fireman injured when responding to a fire, the Gibson court applied the traditional, premises liability, common-law classification rule. Under that rule, the nature and extent of the duty owed an injured person was determined by classifying the injured person as either an "invitee," a "licensee," or a "trespasser." For example, an injured business patron would be classified as an "invitee" and owed a duty of reasonable care. By contrast, a landowner owed only the duty to refrain from willfully injuring a social guest, classified as a "licensee," or a person coming onto the property without permission, classified as a "trespasser." See Hudson v. Gaitan, 675 S.W.2d 699, 703 (Tenn.1984) (discussing the common law rule).

Reasoning that a fireman is privileged to enter property at any place and time, without the owner's permission, the Gibson court classified the injured fireman as a licensee, and therefore held that the landowner owed only the duty to avoid inflicting injury by willful, wanton, or intentional acts. Id., see also Pottebaum v. Hinds, 347 N.W.2d 642, 644 (Iowa 1984) (discussing the historical origin of the rule).

The rule gained wide acceptance, and was universally extended and applied to police officers suing to recover for injuries sustained while encountering risks peculiar to their employment. See generally, Richard C. Tinney, Annotation, Liability of Owner or Occupant of Premises to Police Officer Coming Thereon in Discharge of Officer's Duty, 30 A.L.R.4th 81 (1984 & Supp.1994); 1 A. Best, Comparative Negligence Law & Practice, § 4.20[b], p. 4-82 (Bender, 1994).

In Tennessee, the policemen and firemen's rule was first adopted in Burroughs Adding Machine Co. v. Fryar, 132 Tenn. 612, 179 S.W. 127 (1915). There, a police officer was injured as a result of a business owner's negligence. This Court held the policeman could not recover because he was a licensee and

the authorities are uniform to the effect that the owner of property is under no obligation to a policeman or fireman who goes thereupon in the discharge of his duty, except to refrain from inflicting upon such an officer a willful or wanton injury.

Id., 179 S.W. at 128 (emphasis added).

The policemen and firemen's rule was again applied in Buckeye Cotton Oil Co. v. Campagna, 146 Tenn. 389, 242 S.W. 646 (1922). There, however, the Memphis fireman who was killed while fighting a fire was classified as an "invitee," to whom the landowner owed a duty of reasonable care because he was fighting a fire located outside the city limits of Memphis, and therefore, outside the scope of his public duty. Id., 242 S.W. at 647.

As time passed, the common-law premises liability classification rule from which the policemen and firemen's rule originated was largely abandoned in most jurisdictions, including Tennessee. Best, § 4.20[b], p. 4-79. In 1984, this Court, in Hudson v. Gaitan, abolished the distinction between the duty owed to an "invitee" and the duty owed to a "licensee" stating:

[t]he common law classifications of one injured on land of another as an "invitee" or "licensee" are no longer determinative in this jurisdiction in assessing the duty of care owed by the landowner to the person injured; the duty owed is one of reasonable care under all of the attendant circumstances....

Id., 675 S.W.2d at 703.

Relying upon Hudson v. Gaitan, Carson and Baird argue in this case that the duty owed by Headrick is one of reasonable care under all the attendant circumstances. Our research reveals, however, that the majority of courts in other jurisdictions have reaffirmed the policemen and firemen's rule, relying upon other rationales, including assumption of risk and public policy considerations, even though the premises liability classification rule has given way to one general standard of reasonable care under the circumstances.

For example, in the landmark case of Krauth v. Geller, 31 N.J. 270, 157 A.2d 129 (1960), the New Jersey Supreme court held that no duty was owed to the fireman by the negligent citizen because the fireman had primarily assumed the risk, explaining the rationale as follows.

.... [I]t is the fireman's business to deal with that very hazard and hence, perhaps by analogy to the contractor...