What is the current state of the law on subrogation?

None of the authorities deviate from the principle that, before the right to subrogation arises, the insurer must have made a payment pursuant to its contract of indemnity with the insured. The only qualification, if it can be called that, is the rule that where, with the benefit of hindsight it emerges that the payment made may not have been legally required under the policy, the right to subrogation remains if the payment was honestly intended to be in satisfaction of a loss under the policy: King v. Victoria Ins. Co., [1896] A.C. 250 (P.C.). That case does not support a departure from the basic proposition that a right of subrogation does not arise unless the insurer has made a payment indemnifying the insured for loss under the policy.