Rule 66.01.Consolidation.

Rule 66.01 gives a court several distinct paths to combining related cases. Subdivision (a) covers same-party consolidation: when several actions founded solely on liquidated demands are pending in the same court by the same plaintiff against the same defendant, or against several defendants, the court may consolidate them if doing so seems expedient. Subdivision (b) reaches further, letting the court order a joint hearing or trial, or full consolidation, whenever pending civil actions share a common question of law or fact, with an eye toward avoiding unnecessary cost or delay. Subdivision (c) addresses family court matters specifically: when more than one action in the family court division involves the same or different members of one family, the division’s administrative judge can assign them all to a single judge, who may then consolidate any or all of them.

Subdivisions (d) and (e) handle a more particular situation — an injury to one spouse that also gives the other spouse a claim for loss of consortium, services, or medical expenses. Those claims generally must be enforced in one action if the spouses have ever been coparties in it, or once proper notice has gone out. A defendant who wants to force the issue can give written notice of the pending action and the need to join it to both the unjoined spouse and that spouse’s attorney; if the spouse does not apply to be added within 30 days after that notice, the claim is barred. The rule guarantees that spouse an unconditional right to join under Rule 52.06 if the application is timely. Notice to the attorney goes by first-class mail; notice to the party itself must be by personal service or by registered or certified mail requiring a signature from the addressee.