Subrogation In Marine Insurance: The Italian Perspective

Where insurers indemnify their insured they are entitled under Italian law to pursue a subrogated action against the third party liable for the damage/loss (article 1916 civil code).

The insurer becomes entitled to take over the interest of the assured and is subrogated to all the rights and remedies of the assured as from the time of the event causing the loss, but is not entitled to exercise rights which are not available to the insured.

Defenses against the insured are also valid against the insurer, and defendants to such actions have increasingly contested insurers' title to sue on the grounds that the insurers may not properly be subrogated in their insured's rights.

Under Italian law there are in fact two principal systems of subrogation: