Canadian Indemnity Company, a Corporation v. Ohio Farmers' Indemnity Company and Prudential Assurance Company of London

Virginia Christensen on November 29, 1955, recovered a judgment pursuant to a verdict for $35,000 in the Superior Court of the State of California in and for the County of Alameda for personal injuries she suffered on September 17, 1954, when she fell, stumbled or tripped over a case of bottled water negligently left or placed in an aisle of a grocery store in Oakland. The judgment ran against the Louis Stores, Inc., proprietor of the store, and Clifton Land, its grocery clerk. The jury exonerated a third defendant, one Earl Correia, who was the manager of this one store, part apparently of a small chain of such stores. This judgment (which we shall refer to as the Alameda judgment) has not been paid. There is ample public liability insurance outstanding, but three insurance carriers cannot agree among themselves as to who should pay the judgment. With that problem we are here concerned.

The reason for the presence of this case in federal court is diversity of citizenship. The plaintiff carrier, The Canadian Indemnity Co., is organized under the laws of the Dominion of Canada. One of the defendants is the Ohio Indemnity Company organized under the laws of Ohio. The other…