Imagine that you are a real estate broker holding a deposit in escrow in connection with the sale of a house. Following inspection, title, and mortgage application complications, the transaction falls apart and both the buyer and seller are threatening to sue you for payment of the substantial deposit plus interest. You can’t release the deposit to either party without incurring potential liability to the other. What should you do? File an action in interpleader naming the competing parties as co-defendants and tender the deposit into the court’s registry.
Interpleader is a procedure used for determining adverse claims made against the same person, whereby such person (sometimes called a “stakeholder”) may require adverse claimants to litigate their claims in one lawsuit, with or without him. Interpleader is a remedial proceeding devised by the courts of equity to avoid the risk of loss resulting from the demands and separate actions of rival claimants to the same debt or legal duty. as co-defendants and tender the deposit into the court’s registry.
The property which is the subject of interpleader may be either money or other property. The object of interpleader is to relieve a person from incurring the expense and potential double liability from defending two lawsuits. There should be a reasonable doubt as to which claimant is entitled to recover, neither claim being frivolous. The person seeking interpleader must have no interest in the property and not be a material party to the controversy to be decided. as co-defendants and tender the deposit into the court’s registry.
Interpleader is a procedure used for determining adverse claims made against the same person, whereby such person (sometimes called a “stakeholder”) may require adverse claimants to litigate their claims in one lawsuit, with or without him. Interpleader is a remedial proceeding devised by the courts of equity to avoid the risk of loss resulting from the demands and separate actions of rival claimants to the same debt or legal duty. as co-defendants and tender the deposit into the court’s registry.
The property which is the subject of interpleader may be either money or other property. The object of interpleader is to relieve a person from incurring the expense and potential double liability from defending two lawsuits. There should be a reasonable doubt as to which claimant is entitled to recover, neither claim being frivolous. The person seeking interpleader must have no interest in the property and not be a material party to the controversy to be decided. as co-defendants and tender the deposit into the court’s registry.
– Cynthia Dixon