§ 15.005.Multiple Defendants

The defendant-side counterpart to the multiple-plaintiff rule, and it runs the opposite way.

Where the plaintiff has established proper venue against one defendant, the court also has venue of all the defendants in all claims arising out of the same transaction, occurrence, or series of transactions or occurrences.

Note the asymmetry with the multiple-plaintiff provision. Every plaintiff must independently establish venue; defendants need not each have a venue connection. One properly-venued defendant suffices for all of them.

The reason is practical. A plaintiff cannot choose who injured them, and requiring a separate venue basis for every defendant would fracture a single dispute across counties. A plaintiff can choose who to sue alongside whom, which is why the plaintiff-side rule is strict.

The same transaction requirement is the whole of the limit, and it does real work. A defendant joined on unrelated facts cannot be dragged along by another defendant's venue, and a plaintiff who joins a local defendant with no genuine connection to the events gains nothing.

Read this with the multiple-defendant venue rights provision. That section preserves each defendant's independent right to challenge venue, so this one does not mean a defendant loses the ability to argue that venue was never proper as to the anchor defendant in the first place. If that anchor fails, the venue it supplied fails with it.

The section is displaced where an executor, administrator, or guardian is a party to a personal injury, death, or property damage claim — the conflicts provision names it expressly.