American Fidelity Fire Insurance Company v. United States District Court For The Northern District Of California

538 F.2d 1371 AMERICAN FIDELITY FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY, Petitioner, v. UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR the NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA, Respondent; TRANS-BAY ENGINEERS & BUILDERS, INC., Real Party in Interest. No. 75-3096. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. June 18, 1976. Martin Quinn (argued), Pettit, Evers & Martin, San Francisco, Cal., for petitioner. Anthony C. Piazza, Atty. (argued), of The Small Business Administration, San Francisco, Cal., for respondent. OPINION Before BARNES, KILKENNY * and WALLACE, Circuit Judges WALLACE, Circuit Judge: 1 We are confronted with a technical yet important question pertaining to whether we should issue a writ of mandamus directing a district court to vacate an order which transferred a cross-claim to the Court of Claims. We hold that we should not. 2 Trans-Bay Engineers & Builders, Inc. (Trans-Bay) was the prime contractor on a low-income residential housing project in Oakland, California. American Fidelity Fire Insurance Co. (American) had issued performance bonds covering the work of four subcontractors and naming Trans-Bay as obligee. The subcontractors allegedly defaulted. After investigating the claimed…