Baker v. Board of Fire Pension Fund Commissioners

Fireman’s Belief Fund of San Francisco—Bight of Widow to Pension—Mandamus—Demurrer to Petition—Default of Board— Cause of Action.—Where a peremptory writ of mandate to compel payment of a widow’s pension out of the Firemen’s Belief Fund of the city and county of San Francisco resulted from an order overruling a demurrer of the Board of Fire Pension Fund Commissioners to the petition for the alternative writ, and the default of the hoard to answer, it is held that the sole question to be determined, upon appeal from the judgment awarding the peremptory writ, is whether upon the admitted facts stated in the affidavit and petition for the writ a cause of action is stated.

Id.—Killing of Fireman “While in Performance of Duty”—Suicide While Insane from Injuries Received.—Where the affidavit and petition for the writ of mandate show that the deceased husband of the petitioner was a member of the fire department, and that while in the performance of his duty in driving a hose-wagon he received a broken back and other bodily injuries, by the overturning thereof upon him, and that as the result of such injuries he . suffered great pain and anguish, which caused him to become insane, and that while so insane, and because thereof, he killed himself, about two months and a half after such serious injuries, it is held that under these circumstances the fireman was “killed while in the performance of his duty,” within the meaning of section 5 of chapter VII, article IX, of the San Francisco charter, and that his widow was entitled to the pension demanded.

Id.—-Injuries Proximate Cause op Death.—The injuries received by the fireman may justly be said to have been the proximate cause of his death, and to have set in motion a train of events that, without the intervention of any outside and independent cause,. resulted in his death, although his own hand inflicted the wound of which he died, while insane, since the self-inflicted wound was the result of the .insanity, which was in turn caused by the injuries, which were thus, in effect, the proximate cause of his death.

Id.—General Hule as to Suicide While Insane.—It is a general rule that a suicide committed while insane is not considered a mere death by suicide within the terms of a contract, and that self-destruction by one bereft of reason can with no more propriety be ascribed to his own hand than to the deadly instrumentthat may have been used for that purpose, and was no more his act in the sense of the law than if he had been impelled by an irresistible physical force.