Rule 3.603.Interpleader

MCR 3.603 is the rule for the stakeholder caught in the middle. When more than one person claims the same money or property and the holder risks paying twice, this rule pulls the claimants into one case, lets the holder hand over the disputed asset, and provides for the holder's exit.

When interpleader is available

Subrule (A)(1) allows persons having claims against the plaintiff to be joined as defendants and required to interplead when their claims are such that the plaintiff is or may be exposed to double or multiple liability. The subrule then removes the objections that would otherwise narrow the device. It is no ground for objection that the claims, or the titles on which they depend, lack a common origin, are not identical, or are adverse to and independent of one another. Nor does it matter that the plaintiff denies liability to any or all of the claimants, in whole or in part.

A defendant in the same position gets the same tool. Under subrule (A)(2), a defendant exposed to that liability may obtain interpleader by counterclaim or cross-claim, and a claimant not already before the court may be joined as a defendant under MCR 2.207 or MCR 2.209. Subrule (C) makes clear the rule supplements, and does not limit, the joinder of parties permitted by MCR 2.206.

Where it is filed, and what happens to the earlier case

Subrule (A)(3) sets venue by sequence: if one or more actions concerning the subject matter have already been filed, the interpleader action must be filed in the court where the first action was filed. Subrule (D) then gives the court where that earlier action sits four options. It may transfer the action, entirely or in part, to the court where the interpleader action is pending; hold it entirely or partially in abeyance pending resolution of the interpleader action; dismiss it entirely or in part; or, on a showing of good cause, proceed with it while explaining on the record the basis for that decision.

The fund and the stakeholder's discharge

Subrule (B) supplies the mechanics. The court may order the property, or the amount of money as to which the plaintiff admits liability, deposited with the court or otherwise preserved, or secured by a bond sufficient to assure payment of the admitted liability. It may then enjoin the parties before it from commencing or prosecuting another action about the same subject matter. On hearing, the court may order the plaintiff discharged from liability as to property deposited or secured before it decides who among the claimants is entitled to it.

Actual costs

Subrule (E) defines actual costs as those taxable in any civil action plus a reasonable attorney fee set by the trial court, and divides them three ways:

• Subrule (E)(1): the costs of filing the interpleader request, tendering the disputed property to the court, and participating as a disinterested stakeholder may be ordered paid from the disputed property or by another party.
• Subrule (E)(2): additional actual costs the plaintiff incurs because of another party's unreasonable litigation posture may be ordered paid by that party.
• Subrule (E)(3): no award may reimburse the costs of asserting the plaintiff's own claim to the disputed property, or of supporting or opposing another party's claim.