LUDGATE INS. COMPANY, LTD v. Lockheed Martin Corp.

Defendant and cross-complainant Lockheed Martin Corporation (hereafter, Lockheed) appeals from a judgment on the pleadings entered in favor of plaintiff and cross-defendant Ludgate Insurance Company, Ltd. (hereafter, Ludgate), and from an order denying Lockheed’s motion to require Ludgate to post a bond pursuant to Insurance Code sections 1616 and 1620.

We reverse in part, and affirm in part.

Procedural History

Ludgate is one of several plaintiffs that filed the present action for declaratory relief against Lockheed. The other plaintiffs are members of underwriting syndicates at Lloyd’s, London. Ludgate and the other plaintiffs were designated below for purposes of this action as “Procter and Companies.” We will retain that designation in this appeal.

Procter and Companies, as a group of individual London market insurers and syndicates, issued primary and excess liability insurance policies, “each for itself and not for any others,” to Lockheed from approximately 1940 through 1985. In December 1995, while this matter was pending below, Ludgate separated itself from Procter and Companies as a plaintiff group, and pursued its claim against Lockheed on its own as a…