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Pinter v. American Family Mutual Ins. Co.6/30/2000
ial negligence that caused the fire.
. The next case in which this court considered the rule in Hass was Wright v. Coleman, 148 Wis. 2d 897, 904, 436 N.W.2d 864 (1989). In that case, a firefighter was injured when he slipped and fell on the defendant's icy driveway while attempting to bring a hose to the garage to fight a fire. Id. at 900. The trial court allowed the claim to proceed to trial. Id. The plaintiff produced evidence establishing that there was no ice anywhere else in the city on that evening and that the defendant's son had created the icy patch on the driveway by using a garden hose to wash his car. Id. Relying on Clark, the trial court instructed the jury that the firefighter's action could not succeed unless the homeowner had failed to warn the firefighter of a "hidden hazard." Id. at 901.
. This court concluded that the trial court's instruction was erroneous. Id. at 902. The court stated that Clark was not "a special rule applicable only for hazards that were 'hidden' but a case of inapplicability of the policy immunity recognized in Hass . . . ." Id. at 905. The court described Hass as an exception to the general principles of negligence, id. at 907, and observed, " t is only in the unusual or very clear case that a court can conclude, as we did in Hass, that, despite negligent conduct, as a matter of law, i.e., under appropriate policy, there shall be no recovery." Id. at 908. The court then determined that liability might exist in the case if under the circumstances a reasonable person would have warned the firefighter about the ice. Id. at 909.
. Wright, like Clark, clarified that Hass only precludes a negligence action when it is based on the initial act of negligence that caused the fire and necessitated rescue.
. The last case in which this court examined the public policy analysis in Hass was Hauboldt v. Union Carbide Corp., 160 Wis. 2d 662, 467 N.W.2d 508 (1991). The fire in that case was caused by a woodburning furnace in a garage. Id. at 668. The furnace started a fire that ignited spilled gasoline and eventually caused other containers of flammable substances in the garage to burn and explode. Id. at 668.
. A firefighter who responded to the emergency and was attempting to extinguish the blaze was seriously injured when an acetylene tank exploded. Id. The firefighter sued the manufacturer of the acetylene tank, arguing that the tank was negligently manufactured and was inherently dangerous. Id. at 669. The manufacturer claimed that liability was barred by the firefighter's rule. Id. at 666-67.
. This court held that the rule in Hass did not extend to causes of action against "manufacturers whose defective product directly causes the injury to firefighters during the course of a fire, when the danger caused by the defective product is not reasonably apparent to them, or a risk anticipated by them." Id. at 673. The court reasoned that none of the public policy considerations served by the rule would be fulfilled by extending the rule to manufacturers under such circumstances. Id. at 675.
. Hauboldt follows the same reasoning as Clark and Wright; the public policy considerations that barred the cause of action in Hass do not bar a cause of action that is based on an independent act of negligence.
. This series of cases shows that the public policy limitation in Hass is so limited that it applies in few cases. It bars a cause of action only when the sole negligent act is the same negligent act that necessitated rescue and therefore brought the firefighter to the scene of the emergency. If the cause of action is based on any other negligent act (such as negligent failure to warn,
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