Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/529bv.pdf
Page Number: 543

529US2

Unit: $U49

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NELSON v. ADAMS USA, INC.

Opinion of the Court

instant case. Notably unlike Adams, however, the plaintiff
in Fromson had moved before trial to add the individual
owners as parties, because it suspected from the start that
the defendant corporation might not be able to pay. The
District Court denied that motion in reliance on the de-
fendant corporation’s false assurances that it was solvent.
See 886 F. 2d, at 1301, 1304. Having been informed be-
fore trial that the plaintiffs sought to sue them in their
individual capacities, and having acted deliberately to de-
rail such a suit, the owners of the defendant corporation
in Fromson could hardly assert that another’s mistake or
choice of whom to sue had compromised their ability to
defend. Their problem, the Federal Circuit aptly observed
in its Fromson opinion, was “a bed of their own making.”
Id., at 1304. Here,
in contrast, Adams never sought to
sue Nelson individually until after judgment was entered
against OCP. Nor is there any indication that Adams ini-
tially sought relief solely against OCP because of some false
assurance regarding OCP’s solvency.

To summarize, Nelson was never afforded a proper op-
Instead, he
portunity to respond to the claim against him.
was adjudged liable the very ﬁrst moment his personal lia-
bility was legally at issue. Procedure of this style has been
questioned even in systems, real and imaginary, less con-
cerned than ours with the right to due process.2

2 A well-known work offers this example:
“ ‘Herald, read the accusation!’ said the King.
On this the White Rabbit blew three blasts on the trumpet, and then

unrolled the parchment scroll, and read as follows:

‘The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts,

All on a summer day:

The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts,

And took them quite away!’

‘Consider your verdict,’ the King said to the jury.
‘Not yet, not yet!’ the Rabbit interrupted.

‘There’s a great deal to
come before that!’ ” L. Carroll, Alice in Wonderland and Through the
Looking Glass 108 (Messner 1982) (emphasis in original).