Joseph

On December 13, 1997, a fire broke out at a housing development owned and operated by the San Francisco Housing Authority (SFHA), resulting in the deaths of one adult and four children. A jury later found SFHA liable for the deaths and awarded surviving family members $12 million. On June 22, 2001, judgment against SFHA was entered in that amount, plus costs and prejudgment interest. SFHA later brought suit against its insurance company for failing to settle plaintiffs’ case within the coverage Unfits. SFHA ultimately settled that suit for $3 million, an amount that was reduced to $2,748,861.24 when SFHA used some of the funds to reimburse the expenses, including attorney fees, it incurred in litigating that lawsuit and related matters.

SFHA did not pay plaintiffs, and plaintiffs, on August 5, 2003, filed a petition for writ of mandate in the superior court to compel SFHA to satisfy the judgment. SFHA opposed the writ, claiming, in essence, that it did not have the funds to satisfy the judgment, and had neither the legal obligation nor the power to raise fimds for that purpose. According to SFHA, the only money available to it that could be used to satisfy the judgment…