Ronan Brings in Jones
TO: Marcia Losordo Associate
FROM: Arthur Ackerman
RE: Third-party complaint in Schulansky v. Ronan U.S. District Court No. 2011-6719
DATE: January 4, 2012
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I have reviewed and filed your answer and counterclaim in the Schulansky case. I have also discussed with Dick Ronan the possibility of filing a third-party complaint against Arlen Jones, the backhoe operator who did the excavation work on the job. On the basis of that discussion, I have decided to proceed with the third-party complaint.
As you are no doubt aware, Fed. R. Civ. P. 14(a)(1) allows us to implead Jones if he “is or may be liable to [our clients] for all or part of the plaintiff's claim” against them. In other words, we can implead Jones if we have a right to reimbursement from him for any damages Schulansky recovers from us. In my judgment, we may be able to obtain indemnification from Jones if Schulansky recovers on either her breach of contract claim or her negligence claim. Please let me know if you agree with the following line of reasoning, which leads me to that conclusion.