Thompson v. Cannon

224 Cal.App.3d 1413 (1990) 274 Cal. Rptr. 608 NANCY THOMPSON, Plaintiff and Appellant,

v.

TONY CANNON et al., Defendants and Respondents.

Docket No. G008647. Court of Appeals of California, Fourth District, Division Three.

November 2, 1990. [1415] COUNSEL

Horton, Barbaro & Reilly and William O. Humphreys for Plaintiff and Appellant.

Stockdale, Peckham & Werner, David C. Werner and David H. Solo for Defendants and Respondents.

[Opinion certified for partial publication.[*]]

OPINION

MOORE, J.

Nancy Thompson appeals the granting of summary judgment in favor of Tony Cannon and Cannon & Johnson, Inc. (collectively Cannon). The issues on appeal are whether an insured is a third party beneficiary to a contract between an insurer and an independent insurance adjuster, and whether an independent insurance adjuster hired by the insurer stands in a fiduciary capacity to the insured.

I

Thompson's house was destroyed by fire and she filed claims with her insurers, State Farm Insurance Company (State Farm) and Allwest/Crumm & Forster (Allwest), for real and personal property loss and for additional living expenses. Because of the size of Thompson's claims and their suspicions about the cause of the fire, the insurers retained Cannon, an independent adjuster, to investigate the matter. Subsequently, State Farm and Allwest denied Thompson's claims.

Thompson brought suit against State Farm, Allwest and Cannon, alleging numerous causes of action including breach of fiduciary duty.[1] During the course of the litigation, all causes of action against Cannon were dismissed, either voluntarily or by court order, except the breach of fiduciary duty claim. Cannon moved for summary judgment, contending that, as a matter of law, it had no fiduciary relationship with Thompson. Thompson contended there was a fiduciary relationship by virtue of the fact that the