Johansen v. California State Automobile Ass'n Inter-Insurance Bureau

Opinion

TOBRINER, J.

In a prior action for damages arising out of an automobile accident, plaintiff Muriel Johansen obtained a judgment of $33,889.30 against Gary and Joyce Dearing, a sum well in excess of the Dearings’ automobile insurance policy limits. Although the Dearings’ insurance carrier* defendant in the instant action, assumed the Dearings’ defense in the earlier suit, it refused, during the course of that litigation, to accept a settlement offer within policy limits because it believed that the accident did not fall within the policy’s coverage.

In a subsequent declaratory judgment…