Allstate Insurance Company v. Stephen Palumbo

Summary

The court held that equitable subrogation was unavailable because the totality of the circumstances made recovery against the defendant inequitable. Although the defendant was neither a tenant nor a social guest in the strict legal sense, those labels were not dispositive; the trial court was required to balance the equities, and the undisputed facts compelled judgment for the defendant without remand. The concurrence would have remanded for the trial court to exercise its equitable discretion, while the dissent would have permitted the insurer's subrogation action to proceed.