Spruill v. Lake Phelps Volunteer Fire Department, Inc.

510 S.E.2d 405, 132 N.C. App. 104, 1999 N.C. App. LEXIS 27
CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedJanuary 19, 1999
DocketNo. COA98-237
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 510 S.E.2d 405 (Spruill v. Lake Phelps Volunteer Fire Department, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Spruill v. Lake Phelps Volunteer Fire Department, Inc., 510 S.E.2d 405, 132 N.C. App. 104, 1999 N.C. App. LEXIS 27 (N.C. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

McGEE, Judge.

Plaintiffs vehicle ran off Rural Paved Road 1149 in Washington County into a ditch bank on 10 March 1996. Plaintiff sustained disabling injuries and property damage to his vehicle. At the time of plaintiff’s accident, defendants were fighting a fire one-half mile away at 478 Ambrose Road. Plaintiff filed suit against defendant volunteer fire departments alleging that they were negligent in failing “to exercise reasonable [care] under the existing circumstances while responding to said fire[.]” Plaintiff further alleged that his collision and resulting injuries and property damage were caused by defendants having spilled water on the road “from their vehicles, hoses or otherwise,” which turned to ice and caused plaintiffs vehicle to run off the road. Defendant Creswell Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. acknowledged in its brief that the location of plaintiffs wreck was at the site where defendants were filling their tank trucks from a hydrant to fight the fire at 478 Ambrose Road. Defendant Lake Phelps Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. admitted in its answer to plaintiffs complaint that “some water may have gotten onto Rural Paved Road 1149.”

Pursuant to the North Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure, Rule 12(b)(6), defendants filed motions to dismiss plaintiffs complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. In support of their motions, defendants asserted immunity under N.C. Gen. Stat. §§ 58-82-5(b) and 20-114.1(bl), which limit liability of rural volunteer fire departments and firefighters. The trial court granted defendants’ motions to dismiss in orders entered 18 July 1997 and 25 July 1997. The trial court entered an amended order “to clarify the record, and by consent of the parties,” granting summary judgment to defendants on 5 December 1997. Plaintiff appeals from this order.

I.

Summary judgment is proper “if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the [106]*106affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that any party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” N.C.R. Civ. P. 56(c); Roumillat v. Simplistic Enterprises, Inc., 331 N.C. 57, 62, 414 S.E.2d 339 (1992).

Plaintiff argues that neither N.C. Gen. Stat. § 58-82-5(b) nor N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-114.1(bl) cited by defendants limits defendants’ liability under the facts of this case. We agree.

N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-114.1(bl) (1993) states that “[a]ny member of a rural volunteer fire department. . . shall not be liable in civil damages for any acts or omissions relating to the direction of traffic or enforcement of traffic laws or ordinances at the scene of or in connection with a fire ...” (emphasis added). This statute applies to a cause of action against an individual member of a rural fire department, but not to the rural fire department itself.

In N.C. Gen. Stat. § 58-82-1 (1994), the General Assembly specifically authorized privately incorporated fire departments, like the defendants in this case, “to do all acts reasonably necessary to extinguish fires and protect life and property from fire.” The General Assembly then limited the liability of a rural fire department as follows:

(b) A rural fire department or a fireman who belongs to the department shall not be liable for damages to persons or property alleged to have been sustained and alleged to have occurred by reason of an act or omission, either of the rural fire department or of the fireman at the scene of a reported fire, when that act or omission relates to the suppression of the reported fire or to the direction of traffic or enforcement of traffic laws or ordinances at the scene of or in connection with a fire, accident, or other hazard by the department or the fireman unless it is established that the damage occurred because of gross negligence, wanton conduct or intentional wrongdoing of the rural fire department or the fireman.

N.C. Gen. Stat. § 58-82-5(b) (1994).

It is clear that, subject to several conditions, the General Assembly intended to immunize rural volunteer fire departments from acts or omissions “at the scene of a reported fire.” Id. However, the General Assembly did not define what constitutes “the scene” of a reported fire.

[107]*107Plaintiff does not argue that defendants’ alleged negligence did not relate to the suppression of the reported fire, but rather that the alleged negligence of defendants did not occur “at the scene of the reported fire.” Plaintiff submitted an affidavit at summary judgment in support of this contention, which stated “[t]he distance between the scene of my wreck to the scene of the fire was one-half mile.” Defendants neither filed an opposing affidavit, nor in any manner disputed the distance asserted by plaintiff. Indeed, defendants attempted to interpret this fact to their advantage, and defendant Creswell Volunteer Fire Department Inc. contended in its brief that the “accident in fact occurred at the scene of a reported fire, since it took place within a half mile of the burning dwelling and at the site where the fire departments were filling their tank trucks from a hydrant.”

Plaintiffs and defendants’ arguments present conflicting interpretations of the meaning of the phrase “at the scene of a reported fire” as it is used in N.C. Gen. Stat. § 58-82-5. To determine if defendants may assert immunity under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 58-82-5, it must be determined whether “the scene” of the fire extends to the location of defendants’ alleged negligent act, one-half mile from the reported fire in this case. Defendants’ admissions as to the distance between plaintiff’s wreck and the fire leave no factual dispute as to the question of whether defendants’ alleged negligence occurred “at the scene” of the fire. Thus, whether “the scene” of the fire extends to the location of defendants’ alleged negligent act, although usually a mixed question of fact and law, is in this case solely a question of law.

Our Supreme Court has held that when “language of a statute is clear and unambiguous, the Supreme Court must refrain from judicial construction and accord words undefined in the statute their plain and definite meaning.” Hieb v. Lowery, 344 N.C. 403, 409, 474 S.E.2d 323, 327 (1996) (citation omitted). Given the absence of a statutory definition as to exactly what area constitutes “the scene” of the fire, we decline to interpret the statute inconsistent with the statute’s “plain and definite meaning.” Id.

Plaintiff relies on Geiger v. Guilford Coll. Comm. Volunteer Fireman’s, 668 F. Supp. 492 (M.D.N.C. 1987), in which the federal district court strictly construed N.C. Gen. Stat. § 69-39.1(b) (superseded by N.C. Gen. Stat. § 58-82-5). In Geiger, a volunteer fire department responded to a call involving two people who were overcome by fumes while working on a large gasoline tank. During the rescue by [108]*108the fire department, plaintiff was injured. There was no fire at the scene, nor was any fire reported. The court ruled that N.C. Gen. Stat. § 69-39.1 did not limit the fire department’s liability because the alleged negligence did not occur “at the scene of a reported fire.” Geiger at 494.

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Related

Luhmann v. Hoenig
588 S.E.2d 550 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 2003)
Spruill v. Lake Phelps Volunteer Fire Department, Inc.
523 S.E.2d 672 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 2000)

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Bluebook (online)
510 S.E.2d 405, 132 N.C. App. 104, 1999 N.C. App. LEXIS 27, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/spruill-v-lake-phelps-volunteer-fire-department-inc-ncctapp-1999.