Mercury Ins. Co. v. Jones CA2/5

I. INTRODUCTION

This is an appeal from a judgment dismissing a mandate petition by plaintiffs, Mercury Insurance Company, Mercury Casualty Company and California Automobile Insurance Company (“Mercury”), against Dave Jones, the Insurance Commissioner of the State of California (“the commissioner”). Mercury‟s mandate petition sought review of the commissioner‟s March 30, 2012 order, which rejected an administrative law judge‟s proposed decision. The proposed decision dismissed a noncompliance proceeding (Ins. Code, § 1858.1) against Mercury on the ground the California Department of Insurance (“the department”) had violated due process principles and the Administrative Procedure Act (Gov. Code, § 11340 et seq.). Mercury‟s appeal challenges the trial court‟s order sustaining without leave to amend the commissioner‟s demurrers to the petition on the grounds of failure to exhaust administrative remedies and failure to state a cause of action for a writ of mandate (Code Civ. Proc., 1 §§ 1085, 1094.5) and declaratory relief (§ 1060). We affirm.

II. BACKGROUND

The petition alleged the following. On February 2, 2004, the department initiated a Notice of Noncompliance (Ins. Code, § 1858…