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Tucker v. Shoemake5/18/1999
Gerald Tucker et ux. v. Charles Shoemake d/b/a Rio Vista Plaza, No. 120, September Term, 1998.
[Negligence - Fireman's Rule - Trailer Park Premises. Police officer injured by fall into below ground vault while responding to domestic violence call at nearby trailer. Held: Fireman's Rule inapplicable. Injury not caused by negligence that required police assistance.]
In this personal injury case we hold that the defense known as the "Fireman's Rule" is not applicable.
I. Facts
Rio Vista Plaza is a privately owned trailer park community located in Lothian, Maryland. The appellee, Charles Shoemake (Shoemake), is the owner of Rio Vista Plaza. One of the four streets in the trailer park is Jeannie's Court. Within a few feet from this street and immediately in front of one of the trailer homes is a square metal plate which covers an underground compartment that contained valves previously used for water supply and regulation in the trailer park.
Around midnight on September 15, 1996, Gerald Tucker, one of the appellants, and Keith Hoffman, both police officers with the Anne Arundel County Police Department, were dispatched to one of the trailer homes on Jeannie's Court in response to a domestic dispute. Officer Tucker parked his police car on the street, got out of the car, and began walking toward the trailer home. Officer Tucker said that the lighting in the area was "minimal." He was carrying his flashlight, but he did not turn it on for his own protection. On deposition Officer Tucker explained:
"I'm using officer-survival techniques going on a violent domestic, being cognizant of staying out of any light if there is any and making a tactical approach, staying out of the fatal funnel. ". . . . Q: "I take it from your comments that your training tells you that it is preferable and desirable to remain outside of any sources of light when you're approaching a domestic call like this or a potentially violent call; is that correct?" A: "Our training teaches us to stay out of the fatal funnel, not a source of light but the fatal funnel, in other words the kill zone."
As Officer Tucker walked from the street onto the grass covered common area between the street and the trailer home, he unknowingly stepped on the metal cover. The cover gave way, and he fell into the underground valve compartment. Officer Tucker describes the incident as follows:
"I parked my vehicle on the paved surface outside the Trailer. I exited my vehicle and, from the street, unknowingly stepped on the metal cover of a manhole ditch. I immediately felt the cover twist and give way under me because it was not properly seated on the lip of the hole. Although I was in excellent physical condition at the time of the accident, ... I was unable to keep my balance from this unexpected hazard. As a result, I fell into the manhole and the heavy steel cover fell on my neck and back area."
The morning following his fall Officer Tucker returned to the site and saw children's toys in the underground valve compartment. He states that Darla Sipe, the manager of the Rio Vista Plaza, told him that morning that "'the manhole has been there at the location for a long time and kids are always playing in the manhole without the cover on top,'" and that she had "'told Charles Shoemake ... on numerous prior occasions that the manhole cover posed a serious danger to kids and people may fall into the manhole and injure themselves.'" Officer Tucker further stated that the manager told him that "'Mr. Shoemake did not consider the manhole to be a danger she could not understand why Mr. Shoemake had not already secured the cover since the valves in the manhole
Page 1 2 3 4 Maryland Personal Injury Attorneys
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