Manufacturers & Wholesalers Indemnity Exchange Ex Rel. Hiram C. Gardner, Inc. v. Valdez

COMPTON, Justice.

This action arose from a collision between a road grader owned by the New Mexico State Highway Commission and operated by one of its employees, and a tractor-trailer operated by an employee of the Denver Brick and Pipe Company, to whom it had been leased by Gomez and Kier Trucking Company, the owner. The Manufacturers and Wholesalers Indemnity Exchange was the insurance carrier on the tractor-trailer.

The plaintiffs sought to recover from the defendant, Daniel Valdez, driver of the road grader, the amount paid by the insurance company to the trucking company for damage to the…