CLINTON — The Iowa Supreme Court has upheld a Polk County District Court's decision that a local volunteer fire department's insurance company does not have to pay benefits in connection with the death of an Andover volunteer firefighter who died while trying to save his employer in a farm-related accident.

Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance Co., the workers' compensation insurance company for Johnson Valley Beef of Andover, had appealed a previous district court decision that reversed a ruling by the workers' compensation commissioner finding that Justin Faur died in the course of his employment both as a volunteer firefighter and a farmhand for Dwight Johnson.

The accident happened on April 16, 2005, a day that 23-year-old Faur and Johnson, who owned Johnson Valley Beef in rural Andover, had spent cleaning the manure pit under the cattle confinement barn on the farm. According to court documents, after draining and washing the pit, Johnson apparently climbed into the manure pit to retrieve a chain that had dropped and was overcome by methane fumes. Methane gas inhibits the ability of a person to breathe when inhaled into the lungs and the effects can be immediate and dramatic.

Faur ran to the farmhouse about 150 yards from the barn. He told Dwight's wife, Sherril, that Dwight had fallen in the pit and to call 9-1-1. Faur returned to the barn and apparently attempted to remove Johnson from the pit on his own. There were no witnesses to the event. Faur was found a few minutes later face down in the pit near Johnson, and like Johnson had been overcome by methane gas, rendering him unconscious and unresponsive.

The men were removed from the pit after rescue personnel arrived, including members of the Andover Volunteer Fire Department, who were paged 68 seconds after the law center received the 9-1-1 call from Sherril. It is unknown if the page was sent to the volunteer firefighters before Faur was overcome by methane gas.

Johnson died four days later; Faur died 10 days later and had never regained consciousness.

The workers' compensation carrier for Johnson Valley Beef, Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance, paid the workers' compensation benefits for Justin's injuries and death. Grinnell then sought contribution for indemnity from the workers' compensation carrier for the Andover Fire Department, Travelers Insurance Co.

Grinnell claimed Faur was acting as a volunteer firefighter at the time of his death because he had been summoned to duty as a volunteer firefighter once he witnessed Johnson had fallen unconscious into the pit. The court documents state a deputy workers' compensation commissioner determined Faur's death arose out of and in the course of his employment with Johnson Valley Beef and the Andover Fire Department. While the deputy concluded a volunteer firefighter is not in the course of employment for purposes of the Iowa Code until summoned by a third party, in any event, he concluded, the summons preceded Faur's death, which meant some of the injuries he sustained that led to his death occurred in the course of employment as a volunteer firefighter. The deputy found that Travelers was responsible for one-half of the workers' compensation benefits payable as a result of the death.

Travelers appealed, but the workers' compensation commissioner affirmed the decision of the deputy, stating Faur had been summoned to duty as a volunteer firefighter by the circumstances themselves.

Travelers then sought a judicial review and the district court rejected the ruling of the commissioner, concluding a volunteer firefighter cannot be summoned to duty by circumstances but only can be summoned by the fire department or some other official channel, and, in this case, by a page from the emergency communications center. The case then was sent to the workers' compensation commissioner for further proceedings under the correct legal standard.

Grinnell appealed, leading to the Supreme Court ruling in which the justices upheld the district court ruling. The case was remanded to the district court to remand the matter to the commissioner for further proceedings consistent with the Iowa Supreme Court justices' opinion.

“It is for the commissioner to resolve this dispute between the two insurance companies by applying the statute as interpreted in this opinion to the facts to decide if Justin's injuries arose in the course of his employment as a volunteer firefighter,” the opinion states.