Dow Corning Corp. v. Hair Replacement Centers Inc.

MEMORANDUM *

Hair Replacement Centers, Inc. (“HRC”) appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment to Dow Corning Corporation (“DCC”), which held that DCC was not required to equitably indemnify HRC for the portion of HRC’s tort settlement attributable to non-economic damages. We affirm.

Under California law, HRC is entitled to equitable indemnity if it had “a reasonable belief’ that settlement was necessary, “even though it develops that [it] in fact had no interest to protect.” Aetna Life & Casualty Co. v. Ford Motor Co., 50 Cal.App.3d 49 , 122 Cal.Rptr. 852, 854 (1975). HRC need not prove its own liability, Mullin Lumber Co. v. Chandler, 185 Cal.App.3d 1127 , 230 Cal.Rptr. 122 (1986), but indemnity is unavailable if HRC “faced neither actual, potential nor reasonably apparent liability,” Aetna, 122 Cal.Rptr. at 855 . The question is whether HRC might have been held hable for DCC’s liability under either strict liability or negligence.

As a matter of California law, HRC could not have been held liable under strict liability. California “[c]ourts have not extended the doctrine of strict liability to transactions whose primary objective is obtaining services. [They]…