In Patent Scaffolding Co. v. William Simpson Constr. Co. (1967) 256 Cal.App.2d 506, a subcontractor (Patent) was hired by a general contractor (Simpson) to perform certain work on a building. (Patent Scaffolding, supra, 256 Cal.App.2d at p. 508.) Their contract required Simpson to obtain fire insurance on Patent's property at the job site, but Simpson failed to do so. A fire of unknown origin destroyed Patent's property. Patent's own fire insurers paid Patent for the loss, and then sought to subrogate to Patent's rights against Simpson for the latter's failure to obtain the insurance. The trial court permitted subrogation, finding that Simpson had agreed not only to obtain fire insurance but also to indemnify Patent against fire loss (despite the absence of an express indemnification provision in the contract). (Id. at pp. 508-509.) The Court of Appeal reversed, holding that the insurers were not entitled to subrogation because Simpson did not cause the fire and the insurers were merely paying a loss that they had agreed to insure. The court explained: "The insurers' loss was not caused by Simpson's failure to get insurance or to indemnify Patent. The insurers' loss was caused by the fire, the very risk which each assumed, and Simpson's failure to perform its contractual duty had nothing to do with the fire." (Patent Scaffolding, supra, 256 Cal.App.2d at p. 512.) The court held: when "two parties are contractually bound by independent contracts to indemnify the same person for the same loss, the payment by one of them to his indemnitee does not create in him equities superior to the nonpaying indemnitor, justifying subrogation, if the latter did not cause or participate in causing the loss." (Id. at p. 514.)