In civil law, recourse refers to the recourse of a contracting party against a third party. In the case of a claim, this refers to the right of a so-called party liable to pay compensation for damage, such as an insurer: the insurer has recourse to the third party who caused the damage and is the actual debtor. Here, the insurer takes recourse against the person who caused the damage and tries to recover payments already made.

Source: Wikipedia, edited (only available in German)