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Appeal allowed and new trial ordered where trial judge made contradictory findings on firefighters' negligence.
The appellants' farm property was destroyed by fire.
They sued the respondent volunteer firefighters and township for negligence.
The trial judge found the respondents breached a professional standard by failing to conduct an adequate size-up of the fire scene, but dismissed the action, concluding their fire attack plan was reasonable and the destruction was inevitable.
The Court of Appeal allowed the appeal and ordered a new trial, finding the trial judge's conclusions on breach and reasonableness were contradictory, and his causation analysis was materially incomplete because it relied on a theory of inevitability whose factual foundation was disproven at trial.
