§ 15.062.Counterclaims, Cross Claims, and Third-Party Claims

Once venue is settled for the case, it does not have to be re-established for every claim added to it.

Venue of the main action establishes venue of a counterclaim, cross claim, or third-party claim properly joined under the Rules or any applicable statute.

Subsection (b) extends that a step further. Where an original defendant properly joins a third-party defendant, venue is also proper for a claim by the plaintiff against that third-party defendant — on two conditions.

The claim must arise out of the same transaction, occurrence, or series of transactions or occurrences, and it must arise out of the subject matter of the plaintiff's claim against the original defendant. Both are required, and the second is easy to overlook.

That closes a gap. A plaintiff who did not know about the third party until the defendant brought them in should not have to sue them separately in a different county.

The section turns on proper joinder. A claim that does not belong in the case under the Rules does not acquire venue merely by being filed in it — so a venue objection to an added claim is at bottom an objection to its joinder.

Note the asymmetry it creates. A third-party defendant can be brought into a county it has no connection to, by a defendant it never dealt with, and then face a direct claim from the plaintiff there. The multiple-defendant venue rights provision is the counterweight: it preserves that party's own right to challenge venue rather than inheriting the original defendant's position.