Short answer. Yes. Within the time to file an answer, you may move to dismiss on the ground the interpleader action is improper, or on other grounds under Rule 16. Filing the motion tolls the answer period; if denied, you get the remaining period to answer, but never less than five days from notice of denial.
What the law says
Within the time for filing an answer, each claimant may file a motion to dismiss on the ground of impropriety of the interpleader action or on other appropriate grounds specified in Rule 16. The period to file the answer shall be tolled and if the motion is denied, the movant may file his answer within the remaining period, but which shall not be less than five days in any event, reckoned from notice of denial.
Rule 62, Section 4 — Motion to dismiss. Read the full provision →
Two categories of grounds for dismissal
Rule 62, Section 4 gives each claimant the option to file a motion to dismiss within the time allowed for filing an answer. The section identifies two categories of available grounds: the impropriety of the interpleader action itself — meaning it was not the appropriate remedy for the situation — or other appropriate grounds specified in Rule 16, the general provision governing motions to dismiss.
Filing the motion pauses the answer clock
The section provides that the period to file the answer shall be tolled once the motion to dismiss is filed. This protects the moving claimant from having to prepare and file a substantive answer while the motion to dismiss is still pending and could resolve the case entirely. Without this tolling, a claimant would face the wasteful burden of drafting a full answer to claims a pending motion might moot altogether, or risk being declared in default for missing the original deadline while the court is still weighing whether the interpleader action should even proceed.
A minimum five-day answer window if the motion is denied
If the motion to dismiss is denied, the claimant may then file the answer within the remaining period from before the motion was filed — but the section guarantees that, whatever that remaining period would otherwise be, it shall not be less than five days, reckoned from notice of the denial. This ensures the claimant always has a meaningful window to respond, even if very little time was left when the motion was filed.
Why a claimant might choose this route
Moving to dismiss lets a claimant test the interpleader's very premise — that the claims made against the stakeholder are genuinely adverse claims to the same subject matter — before committing to a substantive defense. If the claimant believes the suit was misused, for instance because the stakeholder actually owes an independent liability to one claimant rather than facing a real dispute among rival claimants, challenging that threshold question first can avoid the need to litigate the merits at all.
Related provisions
- Rule 62, Section 4 — Motion to dismiss
- Rule 62, Section 3 — Summons
- Rule 62, Section 5 — Answer and other pleadings