Jozefowicz

*760 *832 Plaintiff Stanley Jozefowicz seeks to enforce a check he does not have. He told his insurer, defendant Allstate Insurance Company (Allstate), that the contractor renovating his fire-damaged home was to be named on all reimbursement checks and was permitted to deposit checks into its own account. The contractor then contacted Allstate for a check, Allstate sent it, and the contractor deposited it. As it turns out, Jozefowicz and the contractor were having a dispute over the scope and quality of the work. Jozefowicz sued Allstate under California Uniform Commercial Code section 3309, which provides a cause of action on a negotiable instrument where the payee has lost possession of the instrument. 1 Allstate moved for summary judgment, contending section 3309 did not apply because Jozefowicz permitted Allstate to issue checks to the contractor. The trial court agreed. As do we.

FACTS

Jozefowicz owns a mobilehome that was damaged in a fire that occurred in May 2014. At the time, Jozefowicz's mobilehome was insured under an Allstate homeowners policy. Jozefowicz submitted a claim to Allstate for the fire damage and retained Sunny Hills Restoration (Sunny Hills) to perform…