Attracting a co-defendant is quite common. It takes place in two main cases: when it is necessary to bring two or more persons as a defendant at the same time (in principle, a claim can be brought against each defendant separately, but it is obvious that filing one claim against several defendants at once is faster and less costly); when the involvement of a co-defendant allows a recourse to be prevented.
Instructions
Step 1
In simple terms, the co-defendant is the same person as the defendant, only the claim is not brought against one person, but immediately against two or more persons who can bear both joint and several liability and subsidiary liability.
Step 2
At the stage of filing a claim, if it is addressed to several persons, each of such persons will be a co-defendant, that is, no special actions need to be taken. Just make a statement of claim and indicate all the defendants in it.
Step 3
After filing a claim and from the moment it was accepted by the court for consideration, any actions aimed at attracting a co-defendant are drawn up by a petition addressed to the court, one of the parties involved in the case. That is, both the plaintiff and the defendant can attract a co-defendant.
Step 4
It should be borne in mind that such procedural complicity (complicity of the defendants) is allowed only in three cases:
- if the subject of the dispute is the general obligations of several defendants;
- the obligations of several defendants are conditioned by one ground;
- the subject of the dispute is homogeneous duties.
It is not excluded that all three cases can occur together.
Step 5
Each co-defendant in the court acts on his own behalf, but several co-defendants or each of them one by one may entrust the conduct of the case on his behalf to any of the co-defendants. It is worth noting that after the involvement of the co-defendant, the consideration of the case begins anew. The court may itself decide on the involvement of the co-defendant in the case, but such involvement will not be admissible if the plaintiff has not given consent to this.
Step 6
The situation when recourse is prevented by attracting a co-defendant is also quite common. In principle, this helps to immediately determine who will be responsible for what and to what extent. In such a situation, the plaintiff's co-defendants are not particularly concerned with the question, since one defendant will directly answer to him. The defendant himself is interested in such complicity, since in one court session it is possible to resolve the issue of his responsibility to the plaintiff and the question of the responsibility of the co-defendant to the defendant.
