4908 An estate administrator who allowed a negligence action in Superior Court to continue through trial and entry of final judgment without raising the issues of timeliness or failure to file a creditor's claim in Probate Court was estopped from raising them when, based on the judgment, the judgment-creditor subsequently filed a creditor's claim in Probate Court; the administrator's insurer could be held liable for its bad faith refusal to defend the negligence action to the full extent of the judgment; this made the insurer an interested party entitled to intervene in the probate proceeding, but it was bound by the judgment because it was presented with an opportunity to defend the negligence action and declined to do so; Probate Code section 550, which restricts to policy limits recovery in a probate proceeding against the estate, did not apply to an ordinary negligence action brought in Superior Court against the administrator personally.CitationEst of PRINDLE v HARRIS (Absent Insurer) 173 CA4 119 [See: ProbC 550 etseq; CCP 377.40; CivC 2778; Kransco v American Empire 23 C4 390, T/AT 7/00; Satterfield v Garmire 65 C2 638]
|
|