§19.3 Historical Development

• Jurisdiction: Washington

§19.3HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT

CR19 was originally adopted in 1967. It superseded Rule of Pleading, Practice and Procedure (RPPP) 19, which was entitled "Necessary Joinder of Parties," as was the original 1937 version of Fed. R. Civ. P. 19. When CR 19 was adopted, CR 19(a)-(d) tracked the comparable provisions in the 1966 amendments to the federal rule.

The 1966 federal amendments represented a substantial revision of the rule. Historically, parties were classified as belonging to one of four classes: (1) formal or nominal, (2) proper, (3) necessary, and (4) indispensable. Shields v. Barrow, 58 U.S. (17 How.) 130, 15 L. Ed. 158 (1854). CR 19 deals with the situation that arises when a plaintiff has not joined a party that is considered "necessary" and with the question of whether a "necessary" party who cannot be joined is "indispensable" to the action. The present version of the rule is intended to avoid a formalistic classification of parties based on abstract legal relationships. Instead, the rule is intended to foster a pragmatic appraisal of whether a party is "necessary" or "indispensable" based on the facts and...