Rule 2-332.Third-party practice

Rule 2-332 governs third-party practice — what's sometimes called impleader. A defendant who thinks someone outside the case may be liable for all or part of the plaintiff's claim can serve that person with a summons, a complaint, and copies of everything already filed, turning them into a third-party defendant. Once served, the third-party defendant has to respond to the third-party plaintiff's claim the same way any defendant would under Rules 2-322 and 2-323, and can raise counterclaims and cross-claims under Rule 2-331. The rule also lets the third-party defendant reach past the third-party plaintiff and go straight at the original plaintiff: raising any defense the third-party plaintiff has against the plaintiff's claim, or bringing a claim against the plaintiff that grows out of the same transaction or occurrence as the plaintiff's claim against the third-party plaintiff.

The plaintiff isn't a bystander here. If the plaintiff has a claim against the third-party defendant arising from that same transaction or occurrence, Rule 2-332(c) requires asserting it now — a plaintiff who sits it out can't bring that claim later in a separate lawsuit, unless the third-party claim was stricken under section (e). Third-party defendants aren't the end of the chain either: they can implead still another party under this same rule, and a plaintiff facing a counterclaim can bring in a third party the same way a defendant could. As with counterclaims and cross-claims under Rule 2-331, a third-party claim filed more than 30 days after the deadline for that party's answer is vulnerable to a motion to strike or sever, which the court must grant unless the late filer shows no prejudice to the other parties.