Truck Insurance Exchange v. County of Los Angeles

Truck Insurance Exchange (Truck) sued County of Los Angeles (County) to recover costs that Truck incurred to defend its insured Santa Marta Hospital (Santa Marta) in a medical malpractice action. Truck sought reimbursement of those defense costs from County based on the doctrine of equitable subrogation, seeking to enforce Santa Marta’s rights against County under an indemnity agreement. Truck and County both moved for summary judgment. The trial court determined that Truck was not entitled to subrogation against County because County was an additional insured under the policy that Truck had issued to Santa Marta, and granted summary judgment to County.

Truck appeals the judgment in favor of County. Truck contends County equitably should bear all of Santa Marta’s defense costs because County caused Santa Marta to incur the defense costs. Truck also argues that County’s status as an additional insured under the Truck policy does not defeat Truck’s right to equitable subrogation because County’s liability for Santa Marta’s defense costs is not a liability within County’s coverage. We agree that County’s status as an additional insured does not prevent subrogation because…