Can a plaintiff obtain a judgment in excess of the policy limit in a personal injury action against the insurer?

3 As we noted in Critz, "[a] finding of completed breach, however, would not endow the policyholder with an immediately enforceable chose in action against the insurer. Uncertainty as to the fact of damage negatives existence of a cause of action. The fact of damage would become fixed and the policyholder's cause of action arise when he incurred a binding judgment in excess of the policy limit." (230 Cal.App.2d at p. 799, 41 Cal.Rptr. 401, citations omitted.) A valid cause of action must exist in the insured-assignor before an assignee can prevail against the insurer (Doser v. Middlesex Mutual Ins. Co., supra, 101 Cal.App.3d 883, 890, 162 Cal.Rptr. 115), and that cause of action does not arise until the insured suffers a judgment in excess of the policy limits.