Bay Area Rapid Transit District v. Superior Court

Petitioner, Bay Area Rapid Transit District, a public entity established under Public Utilities Code section 28500 et seq. (hereafter BART), seeks a writ of mandate to compel respondent superior court to set aside orders overruling BART’s demurrers in three separate actions pending in respondent court. BART contends that the fireman’s rule is a bar to the causes of action stated.

BART is a defendant in actions filed by real parties, firemen employed by the City of Oakland, who were called to fight a fire which occurred on January 17, 1979, in a BART car located in the tube which runs under the bay between San Francisco and Oakland. The fire occurred when a portion of an undercarriage of the train contacted the third rail, causing a short circuit and a subsequent ignition of flammable material in a BART car. It is alleged that as a result of the negligence and wanton and reckless misconduct of BART in causing the fire, one fireman died and the other firemen sustained injuries. BART demurred to the complaints on the ground that the fireman’s rule was a bar to all of the causes of action.

In Walters v. Sloan (1977) 20 Cal.3d 199 [ 142 Cal.Rptr. 152 , 571 P.2d 609 ], the…