Art. 1041.When Prescribed Incidental Or Third Party Demand Is Not Barred

Prescription — Louisiana's version of a statute of limitations — can run out while a lawsuit is already underway. Article 1041 gives incidental demands a narrow grace period so a defendant, cross-claimant, or third-party defendant doesn't lose a claim purely because time ran out after the case started but before the incidental demand could be filed.

Two conditions apply. First, the claim can't have already been prescribed or perempted at the time the main demand was filed — Article 1041 revives a claim's viability for a limited window; it doesn't resurrect one that was already dead. Second, the incidental demand has to be filed within ninety days of service of the main demand. For a third-party defendant asserting a claim, the ninety days run instead from service of process of the third-party demand, since that's the moment the third-party defendant entered the case.

This article's own history shows why it needed a new number: it was redesignated here from what had been Article 1067, an older location within this chapter. Other articles in this chapter that once pointed to Article 1067 now point to Article 1041 instead, since the substance moved but didn't change.