EMPLOYERS INS. CO. v. Travelers Indem.

Certified for Partial Publication. [*]

Defendant insurers in this contribution action [1] challenge a declaratory judgment in favor of Employers Insurance Company of Wausau (Wausau) that requires them to contribute to the cost of defending environmental tort suits filed after their comprehensive settlements with their mutual insured. They also dispute the method the court used to apportion defense costs among the insurers. We hold the trial court correctly required defendants to contribute to defense costs under the principles articulated in Fireman's Fund Ins. Co. v. Maryland Casualty Co. (1998) 65 Cal.App.4th 1279 , 77 Cal.Rptr.2d 296 ( Fireman's Fund ), and correctly apportioned defense costs.

The facts are not in dispute. The parties sequentially insured a succession of companies that allegedly released hazardous contaminants from a manufacturing plant in Willits, California. The Willits site was owned and operated by Remco Hydraulics, Inc. from approximately 1948 until 1968, when it was acquired by Stanray Corporation. Stanray was later acquired by Illinois Central Industries, Inc., which later changed its name to Whitman Corporation; Whitman, in turn…