Kocan

In May of 1979, appellant filed his complaint for personal injuries against respondent wherein he alleged that he was an officer of the Los Angeles Police Department who on May 17, 1978, was acting within the scope of such employment; that on that date and for a considerable time prior thereto respondent as the owner and possessor of certain real property negligently maintained it in such fashion as knowingly to allow a fence on the premises abutting an alleyway adjacent thereto to fall into a dilapidated and unsafe condition; that on that date appellant was in hot pursuit of a felony suspect who proceeded from the alleyway into the back yard of respondent’s property; and that when appellant continued pursuit over the fence it gave way, proximately causing him severe injury.

Respondent’s general demurrer was sustained without leave to amend, apparently on the basis appellant was precluded from recovery by the so-called “fireman’s rule.” For the reasons hereinafter set out, we reverse the trial court’s determination.

The fireman’s rule, first expressly articulated as the law in California in Giorgi v. Pacific Gas & Elec. Co. (1968) 266 Cal.App.2d 355 [ 72 Cal.Rptr. 119…