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Choy v. Redland Insurance Company11/14/2002
CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION
Anthony Choy, the plaintiff below (Choy), appeals from judgment on the pleadings and the resulting dismissal with prejudice of his complaint against the defendants Redland Insurance Company (Redland), Acceptance Insurance Company (AIC; collectively, insurer defendants), Zinder, Blackburn, Park, Clements & Keenan, Mercer & Zinder and Kevin Park (attorney defendants). The trial court granted the motion of the insurer and attorney defendants on the ground of a lack of jurisdiction to proceed because the trial court held that Choy's complaint arose from and was based upon matters that were within the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal bankruptcy court.
After a review of the record and the relevant statutory and case law, we have concluded that the trial court's ruling was correct. We will therefore affirm.
FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
On January 31, 2000, Choy filed this action against the insurer and attorney defendants. He alleged two causes of action: (1) intentional infliction of emotional distress and (2) abuse of process. In support of those claims he alleged the following facts.
On November 17, 1994, Choy was severely injured in a motor vehicle accident. Prior to the accident, Shamrock Tires , Inc. (Shamrock) had sold to Choy a "lift kit" to modify and install lifters on his pickup truck. In the litigation Choy filed following his accident, he alleged that the lifters were defective and caused the chassis of his pickup truck to separate from the cab when the truck was pushed into the center divider of the freeway by a big rig.
During Choy's prosecution of the underlying action against the several defendants, all of whom took the position that the accident was due entirely to Choy's own negligence, there were a number of settlements. The manufacturer of the lift kit accepted a policy limits offer to settle and paid $1 million; similarly, the distributor paid $6 million. Choy alleges, however, that such settlements covered only a portion of his total damages; for example, his economic damages alone totaled $10 million. Choy also asserts that "a neutral and disinterested judge" had placed a value of $20 million to $40 million on his case.
Shamrock, whom Choy claims was highly culpable because it had sold him the lift kit with bolts that were of the wrong size, refused to accept a policy limits settlement offer. Shamrock carried liability insurance with Redland. On June 2, 1998, Choy made a written demand to settle his claims against Shamrock for the $500,000 policy limits of the Redland policy. This settlement was rejected by Redland. The attorney defendants had been retained by Redland to provide a defense for Shamrock and one of them, Kevin Park (Park), communicated Redland's rejection of the offer to Choy's counsel. Thereafter, Choy made a second settlement offer under which Choy would give Shamrock (which was apparently insolvent) a covenant not to execute (on any judgment that might be obtained in the underlying action) in exchange for Shamrock's assignment to Choy of its rights against Redland; Choy also offered his commitment to cooperate with Shamrock "to preserve Shamrock's own first party claims against Redland for emotional distress and punitive damages." This offer was likewise rejected. Park delivered Redland's rejection to Choy's counsel without, according to Choy's allegations, ever communicating the offer to Shamrock.
Choy alleges that Redland was guilty of bad faith when it refused these settlement offers because Shamrock's liability was clear, "the damages to [Choy] were catastrophic, and the settlements paid by other defendants, although frequentl
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