Does a third party, uninvolved in causing the damage, have to bear the burden of compensating the injured parties?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from Aetna Life & Casualty Co. v. City of Los Angeles, 170 Cal.App.3d 865, 216 Cal.Rptr. 831 (Cal. App. 1985):

Although as defendants point out, the insurers were paid premiums to assume liability, there is, in our opinion, no appeal to equity in requiring a third party, uninvolved in causing the damage, to bear the burden of compensating the injured parties, when the party that caused the damage is [170 Cal.App.3d 875] identifiable and available. Defendants' equities are inferior to those of plaintiff insurers because, whether negligent or not, defendants' actions caused the damage. Furthermore, defendants are at least equally capable of spreading the cost of the loss among the larger population by raising rates for delivery of electric power or by passing the cost along to their insurer. (See Helfend v. Southern Cal. Rapid Transit Dist. (1970) 2 Cal.3d 1, 14, 84 Cal.Rptr. 173, 465 P.2d 61.) Proximately causing damage, whether or not foreseeable, constitutes a kind of "fault," and thus a more logical basis for liability, than simply undertaking to indemnify against future hazards.

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