Republic of Philippines v. Pimentel and FRCP 19b

Last Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled on Republic of Philippines v. Pimentel, holding that Federal Rule of Civil Procedure Rule 19 required the dismissal of an interpleader in the absence of one of the parties, the Republic of the Philippines. Rule 19b provides that when a person that is required to be joined if feasible cannot be joined, the court must determine whether the action should proceed among the existing parties or should be dismissed. Rule 19b also gives a number of factors the court should consider. In this suit, the district court dismissed the Republic of the Philippines, and awarded the assets of the interpleader to another party. Here, the Court held that the Philippines would be prejudiced if the case were to proceed in its absence and further, no alternative remedies or forms of relief would be available that would lessen or eliminate the prejudice. The in depth recap of the opinion, brought to you by SCOTUS Blog can be found here: http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/opinion-recap-republic-of-the-philippines-v-pimentel/#more-7450

More information about the case can be found here: http://scotuswiki.com/index.php?title=Republic_of_the_Philippines_v._Pimentel

--Counseller/eh