Jones

Emerson, Corey & Barsotti, Fresno, for Cross-defendant and Respondent.

Certified for Partial Publication [*]

VARTABEDIAN, Acting P.J.

This appeal and cross-appeal follow a judgment in favor of a trucking company and its owners, and against the company's assigned-risk liability insurer. We find the facts do not support a tort cause of action for breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing and that the trial court erred when it failed to stay proceedings while the parties exhausted administrative remedies before the Insurance Commissioner. As a result of these conclusions, the judgment must be reversed and the matter remanded for further proceedings.

In 1990 and 1991, Freddie and Mildred Jones owned a trucking company, known as Fred Jones Trucking. In August of 1992, the Joneses formed a corporation, Fred Jones Trucking, Inc., and assigned to it all of their interest in Fred Jones Trucking. We will refer to the Joneses' individual and corporate identities as "the Joneses," unless the particular context requires a further distinction. The Joneses operated under the authority of the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC). [1] They performed both contract and job-lot…