# Commercial Union Assurance Companies v. Safeway Stores, Inc.

> California Supreme Court · April 14, 1980 · 26 Cal. 3d 912

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9564161

## Case

- **Full name:** COMMERCIAL UNION ASSURANCE COMPANIES Et Al., Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. SAFEWAY STORES, INCORPORATED, Defendant and Respondent
- **Court:** California Supreme Court
- **Decided:** April 14, 1980
- **Citations:** 26 Cal. 3d 912; 164 Cal. Rptr. 709; 610 P.2d 1038; 1980 Cal. LEXIS 162
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Bird
- **Judges:** Newman
- **Cited by:** 110 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9564161

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- explaining that "£i]t has been held in California and other jurisdictions that the excess carrier may maintain an action against the primary carrier for [] [wrongful] refusal to settle within the latter's policy limits” (alterations in original)
- explaining that under equitable subrogation, an excess carrier “stands in the shoes of the insured and should be permitted to assert all claims against the primary carrier which the insured himself could have asserted”
- explaining that the theoretical basis of equitable subrogation is that the excess insurer has discharged the insured’s liability in the underlying litigation
- holding that a primary insurance carrier owes no duty to an excess carrier to act in good faith

## Opinion text

*922 BIRD, C. J.
I concur in the opinion, but I must respectfully dissent from the form of that opinion for the reasons outlined in my concurring and dissenting opinion in In re Perrone C. (1979) ante, at page 58 [ 160 Cal.Rptr. 704 , 603 P.2d 1300 ].

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9564161. Public record. Not legal advice.