Collins-Pine Co. v. Tubbs Cordage Co.

Cross-complainants Collins-Pine Company and Collins-Pine Building Center (collectively, Collins-Pine), appeal from the judgment in favor of cross-defendant Tubbs Cordage Company (Tubbs). The trial court granted Tubbs’s summary judgment motion in Collins-Pine’s cross-action for indemnity. It ruled that since Tubbs’s insurer was insolvent, Insurance Code section 1063.1, subdivision (c) barred the indemnity claim. We agree and shall affirm.

Background

The facts appear largely undisputed. On December 4, 1985, Ultrasystems, Inc., Ultrasystems Western Constructors, Inc., and Ronnie Dean Bryant (collectively, Ultrasystems), filed their complaint in the underlying action. On its insurers’ behalf, Ultrasystems sued Tubbs and Collins-Pine. It alleged that Tubbs had made and sold to Collins-Pine some “polypro truck rope.” Ultrasystems had purchased the rope and used it to tie down a machine on a pickup truck driven by one of its employees. The rope broke and the machine flew from the truck and struck an oncoming car. The impact killed one of the car’s passengers, Brian Lindholdt, and injured the other, Howard Lewis.

Lewis and Lindholdt’s heirs sued Ultrasystems in Orange County…