Judge Nealon of Lackawanna County Addresses Motion to Join Additional Defendant Beyond Time Allowed by Rules

In his recent decision in the case of Lemoncelli v. Newell Rubbermaid, Inc., No. 2011-CV-2565 (C.P. Lacka. Co. Jan. 24, 2017 Nealon, J.), Judge Terrence R. Nealon of the Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas addressed a Defendant’s  Motion to Join an Additional Defendant beyond the time allowed under the Rules of Civil Procedure.

This matter arose out of a products liability action in which one Defendant manufacturer sought to joint another manufacturer as an Additional Defendant.   The Defendant that was to be joined opposed its joinder on the grounds that the original Defendant did not demonstrate a reasonable excuse for the delay in filing its joinder request and also that the proposed joinder would prejudice the Defendant to be joined.  

Judge Terrence R. Nealon
Lackawanna County

 

Judge Nealon ruled that, since the Plaintiffs did not oppose the original Defendant’s untimely joinder of the Additional Defendant, the existence of absence of some reasonable justification for the delay in presenting the joinder request is not a relevant consideration under Pa. R.C.P. 2253(b).  

The court also noted that the Defendant to be joined had not identified any prejudice that it would suffer as a result of being joined late.

Accordingly, the court granted the original Defendant’s Motion to Leave to Join the Additional Defendant.  


Anyone wishing to read this decision on Lemoncelli online, may click this LINK.