In New York, police officers and firefighters injured in the line of duty have two potential causes of action: common law negligence and a statutory cause of action pursuant to General Municipal Law, Section 205-a, for firefighters and General Municipal Law, Section 205-e, for police officers.
Prior to 1996, the firefighter’s rule provided that police and firefighters assume the ordinary, inherent risks of their highly dangerous employment, and may not sue in common law when such dangers result in an injury. The common law claim was barred if “the performance of his or her duties increase[s] the risk of the injury happening and did not merely furnish the occasion for the injury.” For instance, where a police officer “is injured by a suspect who struggles to avoid an arrest, the rule precludes recovery because the officer is specially trained and generously compensated to confront such dangers.” Zanghi v. Niagara Frontier Transportation Commission, 85 N.Y.2d 423 at 440, 626 N.Y.S.2d 23 at 28 (1995). But, “if a police officer who is simply walking on foot patrol is injured by a flowerpot that fortuitously falls from an apartment window, the officer can recover damages because nothing in the action undertaken placed him or her at increased risk for that accident to happen.” Id.
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