American National Property & Casualty Co. v. Stutte

298 F.R.D. 376, 87 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1227, 2014 WL 794375, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25443
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Tennessee
DecidedFebruary 27, 2014
DocketNo. 3:11-CV-219
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 298 F.R.D. 376 (American National Property & Casualty Co. v. Stutte) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
American National Property & Casualty Co. v. Stutte, 298 F.R.D. 376, 87 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1227, 2014 WL 794375, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25443 (E.D. Tenn. 2014).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

LEON JORDAN, District Judge.

This civil action is before the court for consideration of “Kimberly Ann Quintana’s Motion to Intervene” [doc. 66]. Plaintiff has filed a response in opposition [doc. 68], and Quintana has submitted a reply [doc. 69]. Both plaintiff [doc. 71] and Quintana [doc. 72] filed additional briefs beyond the court’s set briefing schedule.1

Quintana has moved to intervene in this declaratory judgment action as of right under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 24(a)(2) and in the alternative to intervene permissively under Rule 24(b)(1). For the reasons that follow, the motion will be denied.

I.

Background

Plaintiff filed its complaint for declaratory judgment on May 13, 2011, against defendants Laura Jean Stutte and Carol Ann Stutte (herein after defendants or “the Stuttes”) [doe. I].2 The Stuttes had a homeowners insurance policy with plaintiff, and on September 4, 2010, their house and its contents were destroyed by fire. Defendants made a claim for the loss on September 7, 2010, and the claim was denied May 12, 2011. Plaintiff maintains that based upon its investigation, the evidence shows that the loss was intentionally caused by the defendants.

In the complaint, plaintiff seeks a judgment declaring that it has no obligation to defendants under the policy for the loss. The Stuttes filed an answer and counterclaim June 6, 2011 [doc. 6], an amended counterclaim August 10, 2011 [doc. 20], and a second amended counterclaim November 30, 2012 [doc. 53]. Quintana, formerly known as Kimberly Holloway, is the daughter of defendant Carol Stutte. She was living in the residence at the time of the fire and qualifies as an “insured” under the policy. Quintana was also a recipient of the denial letter dated May 12, 2011. She alleges in her intervening complaint that her counsel made a formal demand to plaintiff to pay her claims on July 18, 2013.3 Quintana filed her motion to intervene on November 27, 2013.

II.

Standard of Review

Rule 24(a) addresses intervention as of right and provides in pertinent part:

(a) Intervention of Right. On timely motion, the court must permit anyone to intervene who ...
(2) claims an interest relating to the property or transaction that is the subject of the action, and is so situated that disposing of the action may as a practical matter impair or impede the movant’s ability to protect its interest, unless existing parties adequately represent that interest

“[A] proposed intervenor must establish four factors before being entitled to intervene: (1) the motion to intervene is timely; (2) the proposed intervenor has a substantial legal interest in the subject matter of the ease; (3) the proposed intervenor’s [379]*379ability to protect their interest may be impaired in the absence of intervention; and (4) the parties already before the court cannot adequately protect the proposed intervenor’s interest.” Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action v. Granholm, 501 F.3d 775, 779 (6th Cir.2007) (citing Grutter v. Bollinger, 188 F.3d 394, 397-98 (6th Cir.1999)); see also United States v. Tennessee, 260 F.3d 587, 591-92 (6th Cir.2001). “The proposed inter-venor must prove each of the four factors; failure to meet one of the criteria will require that the motion to intervene be denied.” United States v. Michigan, 424 F.3d 438, 443 (6th Cir.2005) (quoting Grubbs v. Norris, 870 F.2d 343, 345 (6th Cir.1989)); see also Johnson v. City of Memphis, 73 Fed.Appx. 123, 131 (6th Cir.2003) (“The applicant has the burden of demonstrating the four prongs, and the failure to satisfy any of the four prongs prevents the applicant from intervening as of right.”).

Rule 24(b) governs permissive intervention and provides in relevant part:

(b) Permissive Intervention.
(1) In General. On timely motion, the court may permit anyone to intervene who
(B) has a claim or defense that shares with the main action a common question of law or fact.

“To intervene permissively, a proposed intervenor must establish that the motion for intervention is timely and alleges at least one common question of law or fact. Once these two requirement are established, the district court must then balance undue delay and prejudice to the original parties, if any, and any other relevant factors to determine whether, in the court’s discretion, intervention should be allowed.” Michigan, 424 F.3d at 445 (internal citation omitted). Whether to permit intervention under Rule 24(b) is within the sound discretion of the court. Id.; see also Granholm, 501 F.3d at 784 (“The denial of permissive intervention should be reversed only for clear abuse of discretion by the trial judge.”) (citation omitted).

Whether the proposed intervenor moves under Rule 24(a) or Rule 24(b), the motion must be timely. Blount-Hill v. Zelman, 636 F.3d 278, 284 (6th Cir.2011) (citations omitted). Timeliness is a threshold determination for both intervention as of right and permissive intervention. Gascho v. Global Fitness Holdings, LLC, No. 2:11-CV-00436, 2013 WL 5487339, at *2 (S.D.Ohio Sept. 30, 2013) (citations omitted). “Whether intervention be claimed of right or as permissive, it is at once apparent, from the initial words of both Rule 24(a) and Rule 24(b), that the application must be ‘timely.’ ” Stupak-Thrall v. Glickman, 226 F.3d 467, 472 (6th Cir.2000) (quoting NAACP v. New York, 413 U.S. 345, 365, 93 S.Ct. 2591, 37 L.Ed.2d 648 (1973)); see also Shy v. Navistar Int’l Corp., 291 F.R.D. 128, 133 (S.D.Ohio 2013) (“Regardless of whether a movant requests intervention of right or permissive intervention, the preliminary determination to make is whether the motion was ‘timely’ made.”). The determination of timeliness under both types of intervention is within the discretion of the trial court. Stupak-Thrall, 226 F.3d at 472 (citing Velsicol Chem. Corp. v. Enenco, Inc., 9 F.3d 524, 531 (6th Cir.1993)); see also Stotts v. Memphis Fire Dep’t, 679 F.2d 579, 582 (6th Cir.1982) (“Timeliness is a matter within the sound discretion of the district court.”).

III.

Analysis

Timeliness

“[T]he purpose of the timeliness inquiry is to prevent a tardy intervenor from derailing a lawsuit within sight of the terminal.” United States v. BASF-Inmont Corp., No.

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298 F.R.D. 376, 87 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1227, 2014 WL 794375, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25443, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/american-national-property-casualty-co-v-stutte-tned-2014.