I. WHOSE CLAIM IS IT ANYWAY?
Subrogation is a doctrine by which one who has indemnified another for a loss suffered at the hands of a third party may pursue that third party for the amount of the indemnity. The process is achieved by a transfer of the rights of recovery against the third party from the person indemnified (the subrogor) to the one that made the indemnity (the subrogee). The subrogee then stands in the shoes of the subrogor and exercises all of the rights of the subrogor against the third party to recover what was paid out.
Subrogation is most commonly a vehicle through which insurers recover amounts paid to their insureds and place the responsibility for the loss with those that caused it. However, because a policy of insurance will not always fully indemnify the insured for the loss, difficulties arise respecting the extent, if any, to which the insured’s rights against the wrongdoer pass to the insurer and the manner in which the insurer is able to exercise those rights. These difficulties lead to practical problems about who has the right to commence an action and control the litigation and who is to account to whom when a judgment is obtained or a claim is compromised.
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