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ARI Blog: Article

Why does my restoration company need a waiver of subrogation?


Suppose an air conditioning contractor has an accident while installing a system for a new industrial building. Another contractor’s employee on the job site suffers injuries when the AC contractor’s scaffolding collapses and falls on top of him. The injured worker sues the AC contractor and the project owner. The project’s contract required that the contractor assume the owner’s liability for any accidents arising out of the contractor’s work. Consequently, the contractor’s general liability insurance company pays the injured worker for both the contractor and owner’s shares of the damages. The insurance company, however, has determined that the owner was twenty percent responsible for the accident. It files a claim with the owner demanding some of its money back.

The insurance company’s action is entirely legal. Many project owners and general contractors, wanting to avoid this situation, insist that their subcontractors agree to a waiver of subrogation. Subrogation is a legal principle in which a person who has paid another’s expenses or debt assumes the other’s rights to recover from the person responsible for the expenses or debt.

For example, suppose someone hits your car in a parking lot and causes significant damage. In that case, your insurance company will pay you for the damage (assuming you bought collision insurance) then recover the amount of its payment (subrogate) from the other driver (or, more commonly, from the driver’s insurance company.) Subrogation ultimately holds responsible the person who should pay for the damage.

Owners and general contractors want to transfer their liability to subcontractors to the extent that they can. Therefore, contracts often include a waiver of subrogation agreement. In such an agreement, the subcontractor promises not to pursue recovery from the other party. That agreement might bind the subcontractor’s insurance company, depending on the type of policy and its terms.

A standard commercial general liability policy forbids the policyholder from doing anything to impair the insurance company’s rights after the loss occurs. This implies that a waiver of subrogation agreed to before a loss binds the company. Also, the sub’s policy may protect the other party if it names him as an additional insured. Under common law, an insurance company may not subrogate against its own insured. To remove any doubt, the sub should ask the company to add an endorsement applying a waiver of subrogation to the person or organization named in it. Insurance companies vary on the premium they charge for this; some make no charge at all.

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