Source: http://masscases.com/cases/app/56/56massappct186.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 12:05:20+00:00

Document:
NATIONAL LUMBER COMPANY vs. THE CANTON INSTITUTION FOR SAVINGS, THE BANK OF CANTON.
Present: GREENBERG, MASON, & GREEN, JJ.
Practice, Civil, Counterclaim and cross-claim, Failure to raise issue. Lien. Words, "Transaction."
CIVIL ACTION commenced in the Superior Court Department on March 20, 1997.
Louis J. Caccavaro (Mark E. Barnett with him) for the plaintiff.
Jeremy Ritzenberg for the defendant.
to another creditor. [Note 1] Thereafter, the plaintiff commenced the instant action, asserting by various claims a secured right, with priority over certain amounts advanced by the bank, to payment for materials supplied to the construction loan borrower. The plaintiff also moved to amend its answer in the interpleader action to assert the same claims as counterclaims in that action. A judge of the Superior Court allowed the bank's motion for summary judgment, dismissing the plaintiff's complaint, and the plaintiff appealed. [Note 2] We affirm.
Under Mass.R.Civ.P. 13(a), as amended, 423 Mass. 1405 (1996), a counterclaim is compulsory if it "arises out of the transaction or occurrence that is the subject matter of the opposing party's claim" and requires neither the presence of additional parties nor adjudication in another county or judicial district. Failure to raise a compulsory counterclaim typically bars assertion of the claim in a subsequent action. See Yentile v.
Howland, 26 Mass. App. Ct. 214, 216 (1988). See generally Smith & Zobel, Rules Practice § 13.24 (1974).
[Note 1] The foreclosure sale yielded proceeds of $261,000, against an outstanding construction loan balance of $222,645.11. The partial judgment authorized payment of $35,000 to the other creditor, leaving a remaining surplus of $3,345.89. The plaintiff claims $45,159.26.
[Note 2] The plaintiff's motion to amend its answer in the interpleader action was denied as untimely. This appeal concerns solely the dismissal of the plaintiff's separate complaint.
[Note 3] The plaintiff is incorrect in its contention that the bank is precluded, absent a cross appeal, from arguing a basis for the judgment other than that relied on by the motion judge. No cross appeal was necessary; in any event we may affirm the lower court's judgment on any ground supporting it even in instances where a cross appeal would ordinarily be warranted. See Fay v. Federal Natl. Mort. Assn., 419 Mass. 782, 789 n.12 (1995).
[Note 4] Both Volpe and Potier considered the term "transaction" in application of former rule 32 of the Superior Court. However, the Reporter's Notes to the Massachusetts Rules of Civil Procedure state that "[a]pproximately the same meaning should be assigned to the phrase 'transaction or occurrence,' as it appears in Rule 13(a)." Reporter's Notes to Mass.R.Civ.P. 13, Mass. Ann. Laws, Rules of Civil Procedure, at 274 (LexisNexis 2001).
[Note 5] Similar principles are echoed in Mass.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(9), 365 Mass. 754 (1974), which allows dismissal of an action asserting claims that are the subject of a prior pending action, and Mass.R.Civ.P. 19, 365 Mass. 765 (1974), which requires joinder of all parties necessary for a just adjudication.
[Note 6] While we are aware of no Massachusetts case addressing compulsory counterclaims in the context of an interpleader action, there is substantial Federal authority that rule 13(a) applies to interpleader actions brought under rule 22. See, e.g., Liberty Natl. Bank & Tr. Co. of Oklahoma City v. Acme Tool, Inc., 540 F.2d 1375, 1380 (10th Cir. 1976); New York Life Ins. Co. v. Deshotel, 142 F.3d 873, 881-882 (5th Cir. 1998); Bell v. Nutmeg Airways Corp., 66 F.R.D. 1, 4-5 (D. Conn 1975). The Federal cases reject the argument, raised by the plaintiff here, that the neutral stakeholder commencing an interpleader action is not an "opposing party" as that term is used in the first sentence of rule 13(a). See generally 7 Wright, Miller, & Kane, Federal Practice & Procedure § 1715, at 636-637 (3d ed. 2001).
[Note 7] As noted above (see note 1, supra), the present appeal does not concern the propriety of the denial, on timeliness grounds, of the plaintiff's motion to amend its answer in the interpleader action to assert the claims asserted in the present complaint. However, contrary to the plaintiff's assertion, the bank's opposition to the plaintiff's motion to add such counterclaims does not render the bank's claim that the counterclaims were compulsory disingenuous; that the counterclaims were compulsory does not compel the bank to acquiesce in their untimely assertion.

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