Rule 2313.Pre-trial Conference.

Interpleader brings several claimants into one case, and this rule makes a pre-trial conference mandatory once the pleadings close. When the period for all parties to file pleadings expires, the court shall direct a pre-trial conference. The rule does not leave the conference to the court’s discretion or to a party’s request.

The rule refers to Rule 212, which its history shows was renumbered Rule 212.3 in 1997. That rule lets the conference take up simplifying the issues, entering a scheduling order, obtaining admissions of fact and of documents, limiting expert witnesses, and settlement or mediation. The court may enter an order reciting what was done, and that order controls the later course of the action unless modified at trial to prevent manifest injustice.

The pleadings that close the period are the claimants’ statements under Rule 2309 and the answers under Rule 2310. If the interpleader is then tried without a jury, Rule 2319 applies Rule 1038.