Farahmand v. Local Properties, Inc.

88 F.R.D. 80, 31 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 434, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16170
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Georgia
DecidedOctober 10, 1980
DocketCiv. A. No. C 78-1534 A
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 88 F.R.D. 80 (Farahmand v. Local Properties, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Farahmand v. Local Properties, Inc., 88 F.R.D. 80, 31 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 434, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16170 (N.D. Ga. 1980).

Opinion

ORDER

VINING, District Judge.

The plaintiff, a citizen and resident of Iran, filed this diversity action for wrongful death on September 12, 1978. The plaintiff alleges that her son, Mehdi Yasrebi, died on July 6,1978, as a result of injuries sustained [82]*82when a component of the facade of an apartment building (a “wooden screen”) at the Seville Apartments in DeKalb County, Georgia, fell and struck the decedent on the head. The defendants are alleged to have been involved in the construction, maintenance, management, and/or ownership of the premises upon which this incident occurred. Pending are the motions of defendants Irving Gilson, Miriam Chalutra, and Felix Dziewienski to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, to dismiss the plaintiff’s claim as barred by the applicable statute of limitations, and for summary judgment. Additionally, the plaintiff has moved for her deposition to be videotaped in Dusseldorf, West Germany, to which the individual defendants have responded by moving to quash notice of deposition and to enter a protective order.

On August 18,1980, the plaintiff took the deposition of defendant Herman Dziewienski and discovered that he was a citizen of Poland. Shortly thereafter, the plaintiff moved, pursuant to Rules 15 and 21, Fed.R. Civ.P., to amend her pleadings to delete Herman Dziewienski as a party defendant in order to sustain the diversity jurisdiction of the court.1 By order dated August 25, 1980, the court granted the plaintiff’s motion to amend to voluntarily dismiss Herman Dziewienski from the action sub judice.

The defendants move to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction based on their contention that Herman Dziewienski is an indispensable party who must be joined in this action, but because he cannot be joined without destroying the court’s subject matter, diversity jurisdiction, the entire action must be dismissed. The court, however, finds that defendant Herman Dziewienski is not an indispensable party. Indispensability is determined under Rule 19, Fed.R.Civ.P. It is well settled under that rule that one jointly and severally liable tort feasor is not an indispensable party to an action brought against another. Herpich v. Wallace, 430 F.2d 792, 817 (5th Cir. 1970); Jett v. Phillips and Associates, 439 F.2d 987 (10th Cir. 1971); Windert Watch Co., Inc. v. Remex Electronics Ltd., 468 F.Supp. 1242, 1246 (S.D.N.Y.1979); Willis v. Semmes, Bowen & Semmes, 441 F.Supp. 1235, 1245 (E.D.Va.1977). Thus, where joint and several liability exists, the plaintiff has the privilege of selecting her defendants. Wylain, Inc. v. Kidde Consumer Durables Corp., 74 F.R.D. 434 (D.Del.1977). Here, the plaintiff has alleged that the defendants are jointly and severally liable; consequently, Herman Dziewienski is not an indispensable party to this action.

The defendants also move to dismiss this action as barred by the applicable statute of limitations. The instant action was instituted within the two-year limitation period provided for by Ga.Code Ann. § 3— 1004. However, the defendants argue that because the court did not have diversity jurisdiction until Herman Dziewienski was dismissed as a party defendant on August 25, 1980, and since by that date the statute of limitations had run, the action should be dismissed as time-barred.2

The defendants’ position is essentially that where there is not complete diversity when an action is originally filed it is an invalid suit, and it does not toll the applicable limitations period as to any of the defendants. The defendants cite Anderson v. Papillion, 445 F.2d 841 (5th Cir. 1971), in support of that position. However, in Anderson the Fifth Circuit was addressing the question of whether after the one-year Louisiana prescription period had run, the plaintiff could amend his complaint under Rule 15(c), Fed.R.Civ.P., to name an entirely new defendant and have that amendment “relate back” to the original filing date of the suit to defeat the running of the limitations period. While the court ruled that there could be no “relation back” of such an amendment under Rule 15(c), it [83]*83limited the application of that ruling to situations where an entirely new defendant is added after the prescription has run.

Since the action sub judice does not involve the addition or substitution of a party, the court finds Anderson to be inapplicable; all of the defendants in the present action received notice of the claim from the outset. Thus, the controlling question is whether Herman Dziewienski is an indispensable party, for if he is not his dismissal established the court’s jurisdiction with retroactive effect. Baker v. J. C. Penney, Inc., 496 F.Supp. 922 (N.D.Ga.1980); O’Neal v. National Cylinder Gas Co., 103 F.Supp. 720 (N.D.Ill.1952). Since the court has already determined that Herman Dziewienski is not an indispensable party, the court’s jurisdiction was established retroactively upon his dismissal and, therefore, it was established prior to the running of the statute of limitations. Hence, the defendants’ motion to dismiss for failure to join an indispensable party and by virtue of the running of the applicable statute of limitations is hereby DENIED.

These defendants also move for summary judgment. At the time of the accident in question the moving defendants were partial owners of the Seville Apartments where the accident occurred. Ga. Code Ann. § 105 — 401 provides:

Where the owner or occupier of land, by express or implied invitation, induces or leads others to come upon his premises for any lawful purpose, he is liable in damages to such person for injuries occasioned by his failure to exercise ordinary care in keeping the premises and approaches safe.

The parties agree that an owner is liable for an injury if the owner had either actual or constructive knowledge of the defect prior to the time the injury occurred. The court finds that based on the extra-pleading matter filed in this case there are factual issues concerning, inter alia, notice, constructive and actual, of the defective construction and maintenance of the wooden screens in issue. Consequently, the defendants’ motion for summary judgment is hereby DENIED.

Finally, the plaintiff moves to have her deposition videotaped. Prior to the outbreak of the current hostilities between Iran and Iraq, the plaintiff made her way from Iran to Dusseldorf, West Germany, from where she had planned to travel to the United States for the trial of the instant action. However, her application to the United States Department of State for a travel visa was denied in the wake of the hostilities. She is staying at the home of a cousin in Düsseldorf, unable to obtain any of her own funds out of warring Iran. Hence, she seeks to have her deposition videotaped in Düsseldorf and further prays that the defendants pay their own travel expenses and other costs, since she is currently unable to do so.

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Bluebook (online)
88 F.R.D. 80, 31 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 434, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16170, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/farahmand-v-local-properties-inc-gand-1980.