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can multiple parties be sued in one case(civil case)?
im a first year law student and i am participating in a moot for the first time,i need some help with my memo.
so the facts of the case are that there
there's a guy living in the states and owns an old mansion in india and no one lives in the property .there are many intrusions in the property and ill-managed electric lines around the bungalow from the local post occasionally spurt sparks of fire in the night making it look like fireworks in the bungalow garden. The Electricity Board asks sri surya to do something about this and prevent tress pass.
so sri surya approaches a lawyer in india and tells him to take care of the matter and pays him 500 $.the lawyer approaches a local villager to suggest measures and erect a "no tress pass"board.
but the villager being an illiterate,uneducated simpleton sets up a spring gun.three weeks pass the lawyer doesnt inspect anything.
so 3 weeks later a bunch of boys visit the property and are impressed by the beauty of the building try to enter it and the spring gun fires 2 rounds,then due to lack of supervision of the weapon fires three more rounds.one of the boys is greviously injured and has to under go surgery and loses one year of his education.
according to the case they approach a civil district court
who should be sued in this case?Sri surya,the lawyer or both?are the local penal code laws applicable or just simple principles of tort(like vicarious liability,negligence etc)
2 Answers
- 10 years agoFavorite Answer
Yes, you can sue multiple parties in a civil suit. A suit can be even dismissed for want of adding a necessary party.
Since you are going to draft a moot problem I suggest you to add the following persons as defendant.
1. The villager-primarily liable because being illiterate does not mean that he does not have the knowledge that a spring gun may harm any person. Having fully known of the consequences, he is primarily liable for payment of compensation.
2. The land lord- Though it may be far fetched argument in a court of law, you have to add the land lord as defendant since he is vicariously liable for the actions of his sub-ordinates.
3. The lawyer- Again the liability of the lawyer cannot be well established it can be argued in a moot court that the lawyer neglected to act prudently causing the injury of the boys. Again, this is only a mootable point.
4. Electricity Board- Attributing negligence upon Electricity Board seems absurd to me even in a moot court. All EB asked was to keep a sign board for no trespass and attributing negligence for doing their statutory duty is far fetched.
Also research on the fact that in case you have to file a civil suit against EB, it is barred since there is a separate board to hear such complaints.
- HrēodbēorðLv 610 years ago
Yes, multiple parties can and often are sued in a single civil case. In fact, one of the primary rules of civil litigation is to name as many defendants as possible. In your case, that might involve even the representative of the Electricity Board who urged that something be done about the trespassing; he set the chain of events in motion, you could argue. As the case progresses, if need be, defendants can be removed, or dismissed, by the court or agreement of the parties. However, stick to tort law, not criminal, or your case will be thrown out. BTW, the lawyer seems to have no culpability in the matter. All he did was suggest a legal "No Trespass" sign.
