BOB PARRETT CONSTRUCTION v. THE SUPERIOR COURT OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
Filed 6/27/06
CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT
DIVISION ONE
| BOB PARRETT CONSTRUCTION, INC., et al., Petitioners, v. THE SUPERIOR COURT OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY, Respondent; NORTHROP GRUMMAN SPACE AND MISSION SYSTEMS CORPORATION, Real Party in Interest. | No. B188345 (Los Angeles County Super. Ct. No. BC320685) |
ORIGINAL PROCEEDING; petition for a writ of mandate, Tricia Ann Bigelow, Judge. Petition granted.
Towle, Denison, Smith & Tavera, Michael C. Denison and Marta L. Higuera for Petitioners.
No appearance for Respondent.
Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, Joseph F. Coyne, Jr., Gregory P. Barbee and Amir Shlesinger for Real Party in Interest.
The employees of two corporations were charged and convicted of defrauding the United States government. The corporations, which were not charged with any crimes but were potentially liable for common law tort damages and civil fines, settled their claims (one for $1 million, the other for $200,000) and obtained releases from the United States. One corporation then sued the other for indemnity and damages, which resulted in the defendant corporation's motion for a determination that its $200,000 settlement was made in good faith and thus barred the other corporation's claims. (Code Civ. Proc., §§ 877, 877.6.) Without reaching its merits, the trial court denied the motion on the ground that the good faith statute does not apply in this context. We conclude otherwise and issue a writ of mandate directing the trial court to determine the merits of the motion.
FACTS
A.
The Department of Defense and other agencies of the United States contracted with TRW, Inc., which in turn contracted with Bob Parrett Construction, Inc. (BPC) to perform multi-purpose commercial construction services ancillary to TRW's work for the United States.[1] At the times relevant to these proceedings, Bob E. Parrett and Jeffrey Bochesa each owned 50 percent of BPC.
From 1996 to 2000, Bochesa and Marco Urrea (a BPC employee) gave kickbacks disguised as inflated invoices to several TRW employees, who passed the inflated costs on to the United States. In 2000, the Federal Bureau of Investigation began an inquiry that ultimately resulted in the criminal prosecution of Bochesa, Urrea, and six TRW employees who accepted the kickbacks -- but not TRW, BPC or Parrett, apparently because there was insufficient evidence to prosecute them. In 2003 or 2004, Bochesa, Urrea and the TRW employees pled guilty to the charged violations of the Anti-Kickback Act, 18 U.S.C. § 371.
In May 2004, TRW paid $1 million to the United States in settlement of any â€
