The principle that applies when Greene and Sunwar Insurance Companies jointly indemnified Fatou for the destruction of her storey building by fire is

Contribution is the insurance principle that applies when more than one insurer covers the same risk for the same insured item, and a loss occurs. Under this principle, the insurers share the cost of the claim between themselves, in proportion to the amount each has insured, so that the policyholder is compensated fully but does not profit by claiming the full loss from each insurer separately. Since Greene and Sunwar Insurance Companies jointly indemnified Fatou for the same storey building, they must have shared the payout between them according to this principle.

The other principles describe different situations. Subrogation allows an insurer who has already paid a claim to take over the insured's right to claim against a third party responsible for the loss. Proximate cause is used to identify the dominant cause of a loss to decide whether the policy actually covers it. Insurable interest requires that the person taking out the policy would suffer a genuine financial loss from the event insured against; it does not deal with how multiple insurers share a payout.

Examination reminder: contribution only comes into play when two or more insurers cover the identical risk on the identical property; without that overlap, there is nothing to share.