State guide · West
Wyoming subrogation law guide
The insured recovers if its fault is not more than 50% of the total fault of all actors, including nonparties, and damages are reduced by its share. Each defendant is liable only for its own percentage.
Wyoming at a glanceWY
- Property damage
- 4 years
- Bodily injury
- 4 years
- Fault rule
- Modified, 51% bar
- Gov. notice
- 730 days
Overview
Wyoming gives subrogation units time but not help with collection. Property damage and personal injury both run four years under Wyo. Stat. 1-3-105(a)(iv), and written contract claims run ten years, so closed-file sweeps reach further back here than in most of the region. Fault is compared under Wyo. Stat. 1-1-109: an insured recovers if its fault is not more than 50% of the total fault of all actors, and every actor, including nonparties and settled parties, can be assigned a percentage. Liability is several only, so a share allocated to an uninsured driver, an insolvent contractor or an absent manufacturer is simply lost. Claims against governmental entities require a written, itemized claim within two years that meets constitutional signature and certification rules, with suit due within one year after filing, and courts treat any defect as fatal. Wyoming has no reported made-whole decision, which leaves policy language in control. The economic loss rule keeps product self-damage in warranty, but Rogers v. Wright preserves negligence claims against home builders, and West American v. Black Dog Consulting makes the lease decisive in landlord and tenant fire losses.
Quick reference with citations
- Property damage SOL
- 4 years
- Wyo. Stat. 1-3-105(a)(iv) (taking, detaining or injuring personal property; trespass upon real property; injury to rights not arising on contract)
- Bodily injury SOL
- 4 years
- Wyo. Stat. 1-3-105(a)(iv)(C)
- Product liability
- 4 years under the general tort period (Wyo. Stat. 1-3-105(a)(iv)); Wyoming has no products statute of repose. Claims arising from improvements to real property carry a 10-year repose from substantial completion (Wyo. Stat. 1-3-111).
- Written contract
- 10 years
- Contract and indemnity recoveries
- Comparative fault rule
- Modified, 51% bar
- Wyo. Stat. 1-1-109
- Government notice of claim
- 730 days
- Wyoming Governmental Claims Act: a written, itemized claim must be presented to the governmental entity within 2 years of the act, error or omission, or within 2 years of discovery where the claim was not reasonably discoverable (Wyo. Stat. 1-39-113), and suit must be filed within 1 year after the claim is filed (1-39-114). The claim must also meet the signature and certification requirements of Wyo. Const. art. 16, sec. 7, and compliance must be pleaded in the complaint (Beaulieu v. Florquist, 2004 WY 31, 86 P.3d 863).
Fault rule in practice
How Wyoming's rule changes a $50,000 recovery.
The insured recovers if its fault is not more than 50% of the total fault of all actors, including nonparties, and damages are reduced by its share. Each defendant is liable only for its own percentage.
Authority: Wyo. Stat. 1-1-109
| Insured's share of fault | Recoverable in WY | Under pure comparative |
|---|---|---|
| 0% | $50,000 | $50,000 |
| 20% | $40,000 | $40,000 |
| 50% | $25,000 | $25,000 |
| 60% | Barred | $20,000 |
Doctrines that move the number
Wyoming doctrine checklist.
Made-whole doctrine
There is no reported Wyoming appellate decision applying the made-whole doctrine, and the Tenth Circuit has not adopted it as federal common law for ERISA plans. Expect policy subrogation and reimbursement language to control, while recognizing that a court could look to equitable principles from neighboring states where the policy is silent.
Economic loss doctrine
Wyoming bars tort recovery for purely economic loss unaccompanied by personal injury or damage to other property, leaving warranty and contract remedies (Continental Insurance v. Page Engineering Co., 783 P.2d 641 (Wyo. 1989); Excel Construction, Inc. v. HKM Engineering, Inc., 228 P.3d 40 (Wyo. 2010)). Rogers v. Wright recognizes a builder's independent tort duty of reasonable care in constructing homes, which the economic loss rule does not displace.
Joint and several liability
Joint and several liability is abolished in negligence cases: each defendant pays only its proportion of total fault, which is compared among all actors whether or not they are parties (Wyo. Stat. 1-1-109; Anderson Highway Signs & Supply, Inc. v. Close, 6 P.3d 123 (Wyo. 2000)). Fault assigned to a nonparty or an insolvent actor is not reallocated to the others.
Anti-subrogation and waiver
An insurer cannot subrogate against its own insured. In West American Insurance Co. v. Black Dog Consulting, Inc., the Wyoming Supreme Court adopted a case-by-case approach to tenant liability for fire losses and barred a landlord's insurer from subrogating against a tenant whose lease required it to pay the cost of the landlord's policy.
Practice notes
Working Wyoming subrogation files.
- 1
Four years under 1-3-105(a)(iv) covers both property damage and bodily injury, and the ten-year written contract period gives indemnity claims against contractors, lessees and service vendors a long runway. There is no products repose, but claims against designers and builders of improvements to real property face a 10-year repose from substantial completion, so date the construction before relying on the four-year tort period.
- 2
Allocation to every actor drives Wyoming recoveries. On a $50,000 collision payment where the insured is 20% at fault, the adverse driver 50% and a road contractor that left an unmarked lane closure 30%, the insured recovers $25,000 from the driver's carrier and nothing for the contractor's share unless the contractor is pursued separately. At 51% insured fault, the claim is barred entirely.
- 3
Government claims fail on form more often than on merit. The 1-39-113 claim must itemize damages, be signed and certified as the Wyoming Constitution requires, and reach the entity within two years; suit must follow within one year after filing, and the complaint must plead compliance. Use a checklist for every claim against a city, county, school district or special district.
- 4
In landlord and tenant fire losses, read the lease first. Under West American v. Black Dog Consulting, a tenant that paid the cost of the landlord's property policy was protected from the landlord's insurer. Leases that make the tenant responsible for its own negligence, or that require tenant liability coverage for fire damage to the building, support a different result under the case-by-case approach.
- 5
Construction subrogation remains open in Wyoming: Rogers v. Wright recognizes a builder's independent duty of care to homeowners, including later purchasers. Commercial disputes between contracting parties are different, since Excel Construction applied the economic loss rule between a contractor and a project engineer. For product failures, recover the physical damage to the building and contents in tort and leave the failed unit itself to warranty.
- 6
Ishqkala's Liability Reasoning Engine lists every actor named in a Wyoming claim file, including nonparties, and scores recoverable dollars only on the shares of parties that can be pursued and collected. For governmental targets, it opens a two-year claim task with a constitutional certification checklist and a one-year suit alert keyed to the filing date.
Key cases
West American Insurance Co. v. Black Dog Consulting, Inc.
2023 WY 109
Deciding the question for the first time, the court applied a case-by-case approach to whether a tenant is protected from the landlord's insurer and barred subrogation where the lease made the tenant pay for the landlord's property policy. Lease terms decide Wyoming landlord and tenant fire recoveries.
Anderson Highway Signs & Supply, Inc. v. Close
6 P.3d 123 (Wyo. 2000)
Wyo. Stat. 1-1-109 abrogated joint and several liability in negligence cases, so a defendant pays only its own percentage of fault. Subrogation recoveries must be built against each responsible actor.
Rogers v. Wright
366 P.3d 1264 (Wyo. 2016)
Home builders owe a duty of reasonable care independent of contract, extending to later purchasers, so the economic loss rule did not bar a negligence claim for construction defects. Subrogated claims against builders for water and structural damage remain viable.
Inter-company arbitration
Arbitration Forums arbitrators apply Wyoming's comparative fault statute, so an applicant at 50% still recovers half, and an even split remains worth filing. Because liability is several only, name every responsible signatory carrier in the same filing where possible so each share is decided together. Compulsory jurisdiction for signatories covers company-paid damages up to $100,000, and the four-year property period leaves ample time to assemble scene, telematics and repair evidence before filing.
How Ishqkala applies this guide
WY rules, built into every score.
- Opportunities with a Wyoming loss state are calendared against the 4 years property damage period or the 4 years bodily injury period, whichever controls the claim type.
- The insured's estimated fault share is applied under modified, 51% bar before recoverable dollars are scored.
- Files involving a public entity get a 730-day notice deadline that outranks the general SOL in the priority queue.
- Alerts fire at 180, 90, 45 and 15 days before the controlling deadline.
FAQ
Wyoming subrogation FAQ
4 years (Wyo. Stat. 1-3-105(a)(iv) (taking, detaining or injuring personal property; trespass upon real property; injury to rights not arising on contract)). A subrogating carrier generally takes the insured's claim subject to the same limitation period, usually measured from the date of loss.
Modified, 51% bar (Wyo. Stat. 1-1-109). The insured recovers if its fault is not more than 50% of the total fault of all actors, including nonparties, and damages are reduced by its share. Each defendant is liable only for its own percentage.
Wyoming Governmental Claims Act: a written, itemized claim must be presented to the governmental entity within 2 years of the act, error or omission, or within 2 years of discovery where the claim was not reasonably discoverable (Wyo. Stat. 1-39-113), and suit must be filed within 1 year after the claim is filed (1-39-114). The claim must also meet the signature and certification requirements of Wyo. Const. art. 16, sec. 7, and compliance must be pleaded in the complaint (Beaulieu v. Florquist, 2004 WY 31, 86 P.3d 863).
There is no reported Wyoming appellate decision applying the made-whole doctrine, and the Tenth Circuit has not adopted it as federal common law for ERISA plans. Expect policy subrogation and reimbursement language to control, while recognizing that a court could look to equitable principles from neighboring states where the policy is silent.
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