subrogation

noun · Forderungsübergang

Forderungsübergang, the claim passing by operation of law, cessio legis. German has the mechanism all over its statutes, § 86 VVG for the insurer, § 774 BGB for the surety, what it does not have is the imported word Subrogation, which names no German norm.

Which translation, when

Forderungsübergangthe working term, the creditor’s claim passes to whoever paid, by force of law. The insurer’s version is § 86 VVG, the surety’s § 774 BGB, the co-debtor’s § 426 Abs. 2 BGB, the redeeming third party’s § 268 Abs. 3 BGB.

Eintritt in die Rechtethe verb side, in die Rechte des Gläubigers eintreten, how German prose describes the same event, and the natural rendering of to be subrogated to.

Why

Subrogation names a common law and equitable mechanism, the payer steps into the creditor’s shoes. German law runs the same idea as cessio legis, the claim passes by statute, and the statutes are everywhere, § 86 Abs. 1 VVG moves the insured’s claim against the wrongdoer to the insurer upon payment, § 774 Abs. 1 BGB moves the creditor’s claim to the surety who paid, § 426 Abs. 2 BGB to the co-debtor, § 268 Abs. 3 BGB to the third party who redeems. The mechanics matter to drafting: the transfer is automatic, needs no assignment, carries the securities with it, §§ 412, 401 BGB, and keeps the debtor’s defences alive, § 404 BGB, so the payer inherits the claim with its strengths and its weaknesses in one package. A waiver of subrogation, insurance boilerplate, is in German a Regressverzicht, the insurer waiving the § 86 VVG transfer, while the untranslated Subrogation, though decoded in insurance circles, names no German statute and leaves the reader to find one.

Typical mistakes

Subrogation left bare in a German text is jargon without an anchor, the statute the parties act under is § 86 VVG or one of its cousins, and the safe German is Forderungsübergang or Eintritt in die Rechte.
Waiver of subrogation is a Regressverzicht, the literal Verzicht auf Subrogation names a mechanism German law does not call by that name.
The transfer brings luggage, §§ 412, 401 BGB carry securities across and § 404 BGB preserves the debtor’s defences, an automatic package the English clause often spells out at length and the German statute delivers unasked.

What matters

Insurance and reinsurance wordings live on the term: the insurer shall be subrogated to the rights of the insured reads der Versicherer tritt in die Rechte des Versicherungsnehmers ein, § 86 VVG, and the waiver version is a Regressverzicht. Written as Subrogation the clause floats free of the German statute that actually performs it, and the counterparty’s German lawyer starts asking which law the parties thought they were using.

Authority

§ 86 Abs. 1 VVG
§ 774 Abs. 1 BGB
§ 426 Abs. 2 BGB
§ 268 Abs. 3 BGB
§§ 412, 401, 404 BGB

What the machine misses

Subrogation tends to stay Subrogation in machine output, a loanword parked in the German sentence with nothing attached. The mechanism German law performs automatically, the Forderungsübergang, goes unnamed, the reader is left to guess which statute the parties meant, and a clause deciding who ends up owning the claim reads like imported terminology waiting for its footnote.

Examples

to be subrogated to the rights of the insured	in die Rechte des Versicherungsnehmers eintreten
waiver of subrogation	Regressverzicht
the insurer’s right of subrogation	der Forderungsübergang auf den Versicherer
subrogated claims	übergegangene Ansprüche