Farmers Insurance Exchange v. Adams
California Court of Appeal
170 Cal. App. 3d 712, 216 Cal. Rptr. 287 (1985)
- Written by Mary Phelan D'Isa, JD
Facts
Farmers Insurance Exchange and others (Farmers) (plaintiffs) filed a complaint for declaratory relief against more than 300 named insureds (defendants) and 5,000 Doe defendants after a heavy storm in early January of 1982 during which each of the named insureds had reported damage to property arising out of conditions created by the January storm and submitted a claim under one of the policies issued by Farmers. Farmers had denied the claims on the ground that the efficient proximate cause of the insureds’ losses were excluded perils. The trial court sustained the defendants’ demurrer because (1) when a loss is caused concurrently by both an included and an excluded peril, there may be insurance coverage without establishing that the included peril was the efficient proximate cause that set the other causes in motion; and (2) Farmers’ complaint was misjoinder of the multiple defendant-insureds because of the need to individually analyze the causation question for each insured. Farmers appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Merrill, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 811,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
