Rule C Defendant May Seek Assignment to or Removal from the Expedited Track of Counterclaims, Cross Claims, and Third Party Claims and Objections Thereto.

Comments

(1) Defendant Seeks Assignment to Expedited Track in Original Claim. Rule C(1) provides the corollary to Rule B(1) for counterclaims, cross-claims, and third-party claims. If such a claim is asserted, the claimant may seek assignment to the expedited track by making the same declaration required of the plaintiff under Rule B(1). However, such a claim may not proceed on the expedited track unless all other claims then pending are assigned to the expedited track. To provide otherwise would allow the action to proceed partly on the expedited track and partly on the traditional track, which would not allow discovery to be conducted in a timely and coordinated manner. Moreover, as can the defendants under Rule B(1), any party may object to the assignment of the claim to the expedited track.

The circuit court also may use the procedures of severance and separate trials under Rules 21 and 42, Ala. R. Civ. P. If, for example, a permissive counterclaim comes to light, but it would require taking the action off the expedited track, that permissive counterclaim might be severed, and the original claim could remain on the expedited track as appropriate. These matters are left to the sound discretion of the circuit court.

(2) Defendant Seeks Assignment to Expedited Track by Amendment. Rule C(2) provides to defendants a mirror image of what Rule B(2) provides for the plaintiff. That is, the expedited track is as available to a defendant asserting a counterclaim, cross-claim, or third-party claim by amendment as it is to the plaintiff by amendment. Moreover, the provisions of Rule C(2) regarding objections to such an amendment are also a mirror image of Rule B(2).

(3) Defendant Seeks Removal of Claims from Expedited Track. Rule C(3) provides to defendants who wish to have their claims removed from the expedited track and parties who may oppose such an amendment a mirror image of the rights and obligations provided in the event that the plaintiff seeks to have an action removed from the expedited track.

(4) Defendant Files Claim in Excess of $50,000 and Plaintiff's Claims are on Expedited Track. If the plaintiff's claims are pending on the expedited track when the defendant files a counterclaim, cross-claim, or third-party claim in excess of $50,000, then these Rules do not apply to the entire action and the plaintiff is relieved of the $50,000 limitation as the action proceeds on the traditional track.

Note from the reporter of decisions: The order adopting the Alabama Rules for Expedited Civil Actions effective January 1, 2017, including Justice Murdock's and Justice Shaw's special writings dissenting to that order, is published in that volume of Alabama Reporter that contains Alabama cases from 200 So. 3d.