Just days after ending a disappointing football season, USC scored a major legal victory in the California Supreme Court. In Sargon Enterprises v. University of Southern California, 2012 DJAR 15846, a Court of Appeals ruling permitting expert testimony on potential lost profits was reversed. This case is significant as it brings California law on the...
Practitioners and judges frequently use the terms subrogation and contribution interchangeably. This is legally incorrect and, as one insurance company recently learned, the distinction between the two concepts can be fatal. In American States Insurance Company v. National Fire Insurance Company of Hartford 2012 DJDAR 197, an insurance carrier attempted to subrogate against another carrier...
A fire occurs in a garbage can causing damage to a home. Joe and John Smith, construction workers installing hardwood flooring in the home on and prior to the date of the fire, admit that they smoke each day near the job site. They further admit that they typically extinguish and then discard their cigarettes...
On July 29, 2010, the California Court of Appeals, Fifth District, held that an insurer waived its right to equitable subrogation when it entered into a settlement without identifying its insured or apportioning payment. The case arose from a complicated personal injury action, causing the trial court to comment that "this is one of the...
