State guide · Southeast
Tennessee subrogation law guide
An insured recovers only if its fault is less than the combined fault of the defendants, and the award is reduced by its share. A 50/50 finding bars recovery.
Tennessee at a glanceTN
- Property damage
- 3 years
- Bodily injury
- 1 year
- Fault rule
- Modified, 50% bar
- Gov. notice
- None
Overview
Tennessee pairs one of the shortest bodily injury clocks in the country with one of the strictest made-whole rules. Personal injury claims run one year under Tenn. Code Ann. 28-3-104, extended to two years only when criminal charges or a criminal prosecution arise from the conduct, while injury to real or personal property runs three years under 28-3-105. Fault follows McIntyre v. Balentine: an insured recovers only if its fault is less than the combined fault of the defendants, so a 50/50 finding pays nothing. Joint and several liability is largely gone, and Tenn. Code Ann. 29-11-107 limits each defendant to its own share outside narrow exceptions, which means every responsible party has to be identified and pursued. On the insurer side, Wimberly v. American Casualty Co. requires that the insured be made whole before subrogation, and policy language cannot contract around it. Product claims face a 10-year repose ceiling in 29-28-103, and the Governmental Tort Liability Act requires suit against local entities within 12 months. Tennessee rewards fast identification and punishes files that sit in a diary queue.
Quick reference with citations
- Property damage SOL
- 3 years
- Tenn. Code Ann. 28-3-105 (injuries to personal or real property)
- Bodily injury SOL
- 1 year
- Tenn. Code Ann. 28-3-104(a)(1); extended to 2 years under 28-3-104(a)(2) when criminal charges are brought or a criminal prosecution is commenced over the conduct
- Product liability
- 1 year for personal injury and 3 years for property damage, but in any event within 6 years of the injury and within 10 years from the date the product was first purchased for use or consumption, or 1 year after the product's anticipated life expires, whichever is shorter (Tenn. Code Ann. 29-28-103), with exceptions for minors, asbestos and silicone implants.
- Written contract
- 6 years
- Contract and indemnity recoveries
- Comparative fault rule
- Modified, 50% bar
- McIntyre v. Balentine, 833 S.W.2d 52 (Tenn. 1992); Tenn. Code Ann. 29-11-107
- Government notice of claim
- No general statutory pre-suit notice
- No general notice-of-claim requirement against local governments, but the Governmental Tort Liability Act requires suit within 12 months after the cause of action arises (Tenn. Code Ann. 29-20-305(b)). Claims against the State require written notice to the Division of Claims and Risk Management within the applicable limitation period (Tenn. Code Ann. 9-8-402); the Division has 90 days to honor or deny the claim before it transfers to the Claims Commission, and a Claims Commission complaint alone does not satisfy the notice requirement.
Fault rule in practice
How Tennessee's rule changes a $50,000 recovery.
An insured recovers only if its fault is less than the combined fault of the defendants, and the award is reduced by its share. A 50/50 finding bars recovery.
Authority: McIntyre v. Balentine, 833 S.W.2d 52 (Tenn. 1992); Tenn. Code Ann. 29-11-107
| Insured's share of fault | Recoverable in TN | Under pure comparative |
|---|---|---|
| 0% | $50,000 | $50,000 |
| 20% | $40,000 | $40,000 |
| 50% | Barred | $25,000 |
| 60% | Barred | $20,000 |
Doctrines that move the number
Tennessee doctrine checklist.
Made-whole doctrine
Tennessee is one of the strictest made-whole states. Wimberly v. American Casualty Co. holds that the insured must be fully compensated before the insurer can enforce subrogation, and that policy language cannot waive or modify the rule; York v. Sevier County Ambulance Authority, 8 S.W.3d 616 (Tenn. 1999) and Abbott v. Blount County, 207 S.W.3d 732 (Tenn. 2006) apply it to subrogation and reimbursement alike. The insured bears the burden of proving it was not made whole, and courts consider all benefits and recoveries from the incident.
Economic loss doctrine
Tennessee applies the economic loss doctrine to damage a defective product causes to itself and rejects exceptions for sudden, calamitous failures or unreasonably dangerous products (Lincoln General Insurance Co. v. Detroit Diesel Corp., 293 S.W.3d 487 (Tenn. 2009)). Damage to other property and personal injury remain recoverable under the Tennessee Products Liability Act.
Joint and several liability
McIntyre v. Balentine replaced joint and several liability with fault-based allocation, and Tenn. Code Ann. 29-11-107 (2013) codified the rule: each defendant pays only its share except in narrow cases such as defendants acting in concert or civil conspiracy and certain strict liability or warranty product claims. Vicarious liability and respondeat superior are unaffected.
Anti-subrogation and waiver
An insurer cannot subrogate against its own insured. In construction losses, Tenn. Code Ann. 62-6-123 voids indemnity provisions that cover the promisee's sole negligence, and waivers of subrogation in standard construction contracts are routinely enforced, so review the contract before targeting a contractor.
Practice notes
Working Tennessee subrogation files.
- 1
Treat the one-year bodily injury period as the controlling deadline on any mixed loss. The two-year extension under Tenn. Code Ann. 28-3-104(a)(2) depends on criminal charges or a prosecution tied to the conduct, and appellate decisions have accepted a state-law traffic citation while rejecting a municipal ordinance ticket. Confirm the citation type from the crash report before relying on the extension. Property damage from the same event keeps its three-year period under 28-3-105.
- 2
The 50% bar changes intersection files. On a $30,000 collision payment where the insured is found 40% at fault, the recovery is $18,000. At 49% it is $15,300. At 50% it is zero, because McIntyre requires the insured's fault to be less than the combined fault of the defendants. Where the scene evidence supports only an even split, weigh whether a negotiated percentage beats an arbitration hearing.
- 3
Because 29-11-107 makes most defendants liable only for their own share, a recovery against a single driver, contractor or manufacturer is capped at that party's percentage. Name every responsible party you can serve. When a defendant's answer alleges fault by a nonparty, Tenn. Code Ann. 20-1-119 gives the plaintiff 90 days to add that party even if the limitation period has otherwise run.
- 4
Tennessee applies the made-whole rule to subrogation and reimbursement alike, and Wimberly bars policy language that tries to override it. The insured carries the burden of proving it was not made whole, and courts weigh all benefits and recoveries from the incident. Keep a full damages ledger (paid amounts, deductible, uninsured contents, loss of use) so the question can be answered with numbers rather than argued at settlement.
- 5
Lincoln General Insurance Co. v. Detroit Diesel Corp. bars tort recovery for damage a defective product does to itself, with no exception for sudden or calamitous failures. A subrogated claim for a destroyed vehicle or HVAC unit therefore runs in warranty, while damage to the building and contents proceeds in tort. Repose under 29-28-103 cuts off product claims 10 years after first purchase, or one year after the anticipated life ends if sooner.
- 6
Ishqkala's SOL Tracking Engine sets Tennessee bodily injury alerts on a one-year clock by default and moves them to two years only after a reviewer confirms a qualifying state charge in the crash report. Property damage alerts on the same claim run on the three-year period, so one file can carry two alerts with different escalation dates, and the earlier one drives the priority score.
Key cases
McIntyre v. Balentine
833 S.W.2d 52 (Tenn. 1992)
Replaced contributory negligence with modified comparative fault: a plaintiff recovers only if its fault is less than the combined fault of the defendants, and joint and several liability gives way to allocation by fault. Every Tennessee subrogation split starts here.
Wimberly v. American Casualty Co. of Reading, Pa.
584 S.W.2d 200 (Tenn. 1979)
The insured must be made whole before the insurer may enforce subrogation, and the insurer cannot contract around that rule. Settlements that leave the insured short defeat the subrogation claim.
Lincoln General Insurance Co. v. Detroit Diesel Corp.
293 S.W.3d 487 (Tenn. 2009)
A subrogated insurer could not recover in tort for fire damage a defective engine caused to the vehicle it was part of; the economic loss doctrine applies even to sudden, calamitous failures. Recovery for the product itself runs in warranty.
Inter-company arbitration
Arbitration Forums arbitrators apply Tennessee's modified comparative fault rule because decisions rest on the law of the loss state, and the 50% bar means an even split produces no award for the applicant. In intersection and lane-change disputes, prepare contentions that push the adverse party's share above half: signal timing, point-of-impact photos, telematics speed data and the officer's narrative. File within the three-year property period, and confirm the adverse carrier is a signatory for the line before relying on compulsory jurisdiction, which reaches company-paid damages up to $100,000.
How Ishqkala applies this guide
TN rules, built into every score.
- Opportunities with a Tennessee loss state are calendared against the 3 years property damage period or the 1 year bodily injury period, whichever controls the claim type.
- The insured's estimated fault share is applied under modified, 50% bar before recoverable dollars are scored.
- Public-entity claims are flagged for counsel review because notice and immunity rules vary by entity.
- Alerts fire at 180, 90, 45 and 15 days before the controlling deadline.
Other modified, 50% bar jurisdictions
FAQ
Tennessee subrogation FAQ
3 years (Tenn. Code Ann. 28-3-105 (injuries to personal or real property)). A subrogating carrier generally takes the insured's claim subject to the same limitation period, usually measured from the date of loss.
Modified, 50% bar (McIntyre v. Balentine, 833 S.W.2d 52 (Tenn. 1992); Tenn. Code Ann. 29-11-107). An insured recovers only if its fault is less than the combined fault of the defendants, and the award is reduced by its share. A 50/50 finding bars recovery.
No general notice-of-claim requirement against local governments, but the Governmental Tort Liability Act requires suit within 12 months after the cause of action arises (Tenn. Code Ann. 29-20-305(b)). Claims against the State require written notice to the Division of Claims and Risk Management within the applicable limitation period (Tenn. Code Ann. 9-8-402); the Division has 90 days to honor or deny the claim before it transfers to the Claims Commission, and a Claims Commission complaint alone does not satisfy the notice requirement.
Tennessee is one of the strictest made-whole states. Wimberly v. American Casualty Co. holds that the insured must be fully compensated before the insurer can enforce subrogation, and that policy language cannot waive or modify the rule; York v. Sevier County Ambulance Authority, 8 S.W.3d 616 (Tenn. 1999) and Abbott v. Blount County, 207 S.W.3d 732 (Tenn. 2006) apply it to subrogation and reimbursement alike. The insured bears the burden of proving it was not made whole, and courts consider all benefits and recoveries from the incident.
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