Subrogation: Primer and Recent Environmental Cleanup Cases

Subrogation, a right of recovery conferred by equity, contract or statute, stands alongside contribution and indemnity as one of the three most important doctrines of risk transfer. Most insurance policies contain a subrogation clause that confers a right of subrogation on the insurer, and waivers of subrogation rights may be an important aspect of insurance settlement negotiations. In the last few years insurance disputes concerning subrogation rights related to claims under the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation Liability Act (“CERCLA”) have yielded several interesting decisions. In this article, SRZ partner Howard B. Epstein and special counsel Theodore A. Keyes provide a primer on subrogation and a timely discussion of these CERCLA cases.