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Calatayud v. State8/6/1998
g section 1714.9(a)(1) to fellow officers jointly discharging their duties would impair efficient judicial administration, another policy served by the firefighter's rule. (Giorgi v. Pacific Gas & Elec. Co., supra, 266 Cal.App.2d at p. 360.) The "difficult problems" of determining causation (ibid.) are multiplied in cases turning on the propriety of chosen police tactics or emergency procedures and in reality may simply involve a judgment call on the part of the officer who inadvertently inflicts injury. (E.g., Ne Casek v. City of Los Angeles, supra, 233 Cal.App.2d at pp. 137-138; cf. Seibert Security Services, Inc. v. Superior Court, supra, 18 Cal.App.4th at p. 411; Scott v. E.L. Yeager Const. Co., supra, 12 Cal.App.4th at p. 1195.) Here, for example, dueling experts offered considerable testimony debating the reasonableness of the highway patrol officers' attempts to subdue Wilkes while holding shotguns. Litigation might often devolve to time-consuming efforts to parse a series of actions attempting to prove or disprove that the critical one occurred before or after the negligent officer knew or should have known of the presence of the injured one. (See Seibert Security Services, Inc. v. Superior Court, supra, 18 Cal.App.4th at p. 411.) The taxpayers ultimately compensate for the injury regardless of the cause; a lengthy trial only determines from which account, inevitably at additional overall expenditure. In "reversing the effect" of Hubbard, the Legislature intended to make third party tortfeasors bear the consequences of their misconduct, not burden the public with greater costs for police, fire, and medical emergency protection.
Construing section 1714.9(a)(1) as extending to jointly engaged fellow officers would also create serious anomalies in the law because section 1714.9 preserves the exclusivity of the Workers' Compensation Act. (Civ. Code, ยง 1714.9, subd. (d).) Thus, an injured officer would be allowed to sue when the negligent officer was employed by another agency but not by his own employer. We can discern no rational reason the Legislature would intend liability to depend solely on whether the plaintiff and defendant wore different badges and uniforms when the risk of injury is the same. Such a consequence is itself sufficiently absurd to defeat plaintiff's construction of the statute. (People v. Pieters, supra, 52 Cal.3d at p. 898; Ex parte Ellis, supra, 11 Cal. at pp. 224-225.) Moreover, by any estimation, recompense for injuries caused by fellow officers was not "the object to be achieved" (Harris v. Capital Growth Investors XIV, supra, 52 Cal.3d at p. 1159) nor as to them was the bar to liability imposed by the firefighter's rule "the evil to be prevented by the legislation." (Ibid.) An injured officer would be in no different position regardless of which agency employed the negligent officer.
For the reasons stated, we conclude the Legislature did not intend "any person" as used in section 1714.9(a)(1) to include fellow public safety members who are jointly engaged in the discharge of their responsibilities. (See Friends of Mammoth v. Board of Supervisors (1972) 8 Cal.3d 247, 259.) disposition
The judgment of the Court of Appeal is reversed.
BROWN, J.
WE CONCUR: GEORGE, C.J. KENNARD, J. BAXTER, J. WERDEGAR, J. CHIN, J.
DISSENTING OPINION BY MOSK, j.
As a matter of statutory construction, the majority stand on shaky ground indeed. They concede that the literal language of Civil Code section 1714.9, subdivision (a) (hereafter section 1714.9(a)) applies to "any person," without limitation, except as to the express exemption of employers provided in subdivision (d) of that section. No doubt there are som
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