Short answer. Only for the deficiency. Article 2207 subrogates the insurance company to your rights against the wrongdoer to the extent it indemnified you, and provides that where the amount paid does not fully cover the injury or loss, you may recover the deficiency from the person who caused it.
What the law says
the insurance company shall be subrogated to the rights of the insured against the wrongdoer
Civil Code, Article 2207 — Insurance and Subrogation. Read the full provision →
What the law says
If the amount paid by the insurance company does not fully cover the injury or loss, the aggrieved party shall be entitled to recover the deficiency from the person causing the loss or injury.
Civil Code, Article 2207 — Insurance and Subrogation. Read the full provision →
The claim moves; it does not vanish
Payment by your insurer does not extinguish the driver's liability, it transfers part of it. The article provides that the insurance company shall be subrogated to the rights of the insured against the wrongdoer, which means the insurer steps into your position for what it paid and may pursue him itself. So the sum your insurer covered is no longer yours to claim. This is why an insurer takes such an interest in how the accident was documented and in what you say to the other side. The right it is protecting, once it has paid, is its own.
A loss is compensated once
If you could collect the repair cost from the insurer and again from the driver, you would end up better off for having been hit, and he would be paying for a benefit you had already bought and insured. That is also why a settlement signed with the driver behind your insurer's back is a problem: you may be releasing a claim that is no longer yours to release, and the release may cost you under your own policy. Sort out the sequence with your insurer before accepting anything, rather than afterwards.
What the deficiency actually is
What remains yours is the shortfall, and the article is explicit about it: if the amount paid by the insurance company does not fully cover the injury or loss, the aggrieved party shall be entitled to recover the deficiency from the person causing the loss or injury. In an ordinary motor claim that shortfall is made up of the participation or excess you bore yourself, any deduction the policy applied to the settlement, and the heads of loss the policy simply does not cover. Work the figure out from the policy and the insurer's computation rather than from a general sense of being out of pocket.
Get both numbers before you write to him
The deficiency is a subtraction, so you need the insurer's computation of what it paid and on what basis, alongside the repair invoice and receipts for anything you paid directly. An estimate is not enough once you are claiming a balance. Tell your insurer that you intend to pursue the driver for the remainder, so the two claims do not collide. Note as well that a claim against the driver runs against a prescriptive period measured from the accident itself, and your insurer's internal timetable has nothing to do with yours.
Cases citing this provision
These Supreme Court decisions cite the provision above. We list them so you can read them yourself; the summaries of what each decided are not ours to give.
- Vicente G. Henson, Jr. vs. UCPB General Insurance Co., Inc, G.R. No. 223134, August 14, 2019 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Vector Shipping Corporation, et al. vs. American Home Assurance Co., et al, G.R. No. 159213, July 3, 2013 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- C.V. Gaspar Salvage & Lighterage Corporation vs. LG Insurance Company, Ltd., (United States Branch), G.R. No. 206892 / G.R. No. 207035, February 3, 2021 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- UCPB General Insurance, Co., Inc. vs. Pascual Liner, Inc, G.R. No. 242328, April 26, 2021 — read the decision on LawPhil →
Related provisions
- Civil Code, Article 2176 — Quasi-Delict Defined (Culpa Aquiliana)
- Civil Code, Article 2199 — Actual Damages Must Be Proved