Legal Definitions - subassignee

A subassignee is a party who receives rights, interests, or property that have already been transferred once before. In simpler terms, when an original owner (the assignor) transfers something to a first recipient (the assignee), and that first recipient then transfers those same rights, interests, or property to a second recipient, the second recipient is known as the subassignee. This creates a chain of transfers, with the subassignee being the latest party in that chain to acquire the rights.

Here are some examples illustrating the concept of a subassignee:

• Commercial Lease Transfer: Imagine a business, "Coffee Corner Inc.," leases a retail space from a landlord for five years. After two years, Coffee Corner Inc. decides to move and assigns its remaining three-year lease to another business, "Sweet Treats Bakery." Sweet Treats Bakery is the assignee of the lease. A year later, Sweet Treats Bakery finds a larger location and assigns the final two years of the lease to "Daily Grind Cafe." In this scenario, Daily Grind Cafe is the subassignee because it received the lease rights from Sweet Treats Bakery, which had originally received them from Coffee Corner Inc. The rights were transferred twice in succession.

• Contractual Payment Rights: A software development company, "Tech Solutions," completes a major project for a client and is owed a significant payment. To improve its cash flow, Tech Solutions assigns its right to receive this payment to a financial institution, "QuickPay Finance." QuickPay Finance is the assignee of the payment right. Later, QuickPay Finance decides to streamline its portfolio and sells its right to collect that specific payment from the client to another specialized collection agency, "Debt Recovery Pros." Debt Recovery Pros is the subassignee because it acquired the right to collect the payment from QuickPay Finance, which had itself acquired that right from the original software development company.