Art. 697.Subrogor and Subrogee

Subrogation lets one person, the subrogee, step into another person's shoes, the subrogor, with respect to an incorporeal right — often after paying a debt the subrogor owed, or was owed, and taking over the corresponding right by agreement or automatically under the law. Article 697 sets out who has to sue to enforce that right afterward, and the answer depends on how much of the right changed hands.

When the subrogation is partial — the subrogee only stepped into part of the original right — both the subrogor and the subrogee must join in enforcing it judicially, since each still holds a piece of the underlying right. When the entire right has been subrogated, the subrogee alone can sue, because the subrogor no longer retains any share of the right to protect.