Pacific Gas & Electric Co. v. Superior Court

Real party in interest American Guarantee and Liability Insurance Company (American) has sued petitioner Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) in an action for property damages arising from an industriad power failure that injured its insured, Pac-West Telecomm, Inc. (Pac-West). American seeks not only to recover payments it has paid out to Pac-West, but claims it may recover its insured’s $50,000 deductible although Pac-West is not a named party in this lawsuit.

The trial court denied PG&E’s motion to strike the prayer for recovery of the nonparty’s deductible, concluding that regulations governing the obligation of an insurer to seek recovery for an insured’s deductible in a subrogation demand confers standing to sue on an insured’s behalf. PG&E now seeks a writ of mandate to overturn the trial court’s order denying its motion to strike the request for recovery of the deductible. We issued a Palma notice notifying the parties of the possibility that this court may issue a peremptory writ in the first instance, and seeking any opposition to the petition. (See Palma v. U.S. Industrial Fasteners, Inc. (1984) 36 Cal.3d 171 [ 203 Cal.Rptr. 626 , 681 P.2d 893 ].) We have…