Rule 71.Enforcing Relief for or Against a Nonparty

Litigation usually binds only the people who are named as parties to it, but not always. An injunction can reach someone acting in concert with an enjoined defendant, or an order might direct a stakeholder or a third party holding disputed property to turn it over, even though that person never appeared in the case as a plaintiff or defendant. Rule 71 answers the practical question that follows: once a court order does grant relief for, or run against, someone outside the case, how does a party go about enforcing it?

The rule's answer is direct — the same procedure. A nonparty who benefits from an order can invoke the court's enforcement tools just as a party could, and a nonparty bound by an order is subject to the same enforcement mechanisms, whether that means the specific-act remedies in Rule 70, a writ of execution under Rule 69, or a contempt finding. Rule 71 does not expand who can be bound by a court order in the first place; it makes sure that once someone is properly subject to relief under an order, the mechanics for enforcing that order do not depend on whether the person's name appears on the case caption.