Forensis

This appeal presents the issue of whether expert witnesses may seek equitable indemnification by filing cross-complaints against the attorneys who retained them in an underlying case, when the client in the underlying case has sued the expert witnesses for professional negligence, but the client has not sued those attorneys. The subject indemnity cross-complaints arose out of an action for professional malpractice against these defendants and cross-complainants Malcolm Robbins (Robbins) and Forensis Group, Inc. (Forensis; sometimes collectively referred to here as Experts), who acted, respectively, as an expert engineering witness and as an expert referral firm in the underlying action. This underlying action was an unsuccessful wrongful death/products liability complaint filed on behalf of the decedent’s surviving plaintiffs, the Hernandez family (the underlying action), by their then-attorneys, the indemnity cross-defendants, the law firm of Frantz, Townsend & Foldenauer and its attorney, Giles Townsend (referred to here as Law Firm). After the Hernandez plaintiffs suffered an unfavorable summary judgment ruling in the underlying action on their products liability…