Short answer. Yes. Section 12 of Rule 6 lets the court order new parties brought in as defendants, if jurisdiction over them can be obtained, whenever their presence is required to grant complete relief in resolving a counterclaim or cross-claim, so the court can decide the claim fully without a missing party leaving gaps in the relief it can award.
What the law says
When the presence of parties other than those to the original action is required for the granting of complete relief in the determination of a counterclaim or cross-claim, the court shall order them to be brought in as defendants, if jurisdiction over them can be obtained.
Rule 6, Section 12 — Bringing new parties. Read the full provision →
The gap this section fills
A counterclaim or cross-claim, once asserted, may turn out to require the participation of someone who was never part of the original action at all — the plaintiff and existing defendants alone may not be enough to fully resolve the claim the defendant is now raising. Section 12 addresses precisely this scenario, where the presence of parties other than those to the original action is required.
The standard: needed for complete relief
The trigger for bringing someone in under this section is that their presence is required for the granting of complete relief in the determination of a counterclaim or cross-claim. This mirrors the logic behind indispensable and necessary parties elsewhere in the Rules — the concern is ensuring the court can actually resolve the counterclaim or cross-claim completely, rather than issuing relief that leaves gaps because a needed party is absent.
How they come in, and the jurisdictional limit
Section 12 directs that the court shall order them to be brought in as defendants — the newly needed party enters the case on the defending side, in connection with the counterclaim or cross-claim that requires their presence. But this authority is expressly conditioned: it applies only if jurisdiction over them can be obtained, meaning the court cannot compel joinder of someone entirely beyond its jurisdictional reach.
What happens once the new party is brought in
Once joined, the newly added defendant becomes a party to the litigation for purposes of the counterclaim or cross-claim, meaning they can be served, may answer, and are bound by whatever judgment the court renders on that claim. This avoids the inefficiency and risk of inconsistent outcomes that would follow if the original defendant instead had to file a separate lawsuit against the newly needed party to obtain relief the original case could not fully provide, and it lets one court resolve the entire dispute in a single proceeding.
Related provisions
- Rule 6, Section 12 — Bringing new parties
- Rule 6, Section 6 — Counterclaim
- Rule 6, Section 8 — Cross