Rule 96.06.Who Shall be Made Parties.

Rule 96.06 states a broad and simple principle that runs through the whole chapter: partition affects title, and title cannot be settled without everyone who holds a piece of it being brought into the case. The rule requires that every person with an interest in the land be made a party, without regard to whether they currently possess or occupy the property.

That last phrase matters. A person does not have to be living on the land, farming it, or collecting rent from it to have an interest that must be represented in the lawsuit. A remainderman waiting for a life estate to end, a co-tenant who has never set foot on the property, or an owner of a fractional mineral interest all count as interested persons who belong in the case.

This rule works hand in hand with Rule 96.04’s more detailed parties provisions, which explain how to handle interests belonging to people not yet born and when the court must appoint counsel. Rule 96.06 supplies the baseline rule — everyone with a real stake gets joined — while Rule 96.04 fills in how to manage the harder cases of future and contingent interests. Together they aim at the same goal: a partition judgment that can be relied on because no one with a legitimate claim was left out.