Opinion ID: 2227047
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Did NIPSCO's motion to amend its pleadings to add Edward Pivarnik as a third-party defendant relate back to its original third-party complaint?

Text: In August of 1992, NIPSCO moved under Trial Rule 15(A) to amend its original third-party complaint to add Edward Pivarnik as an additional third-party defendant. The trial court granted the motion. We must decide whether that amendment relates back to the date on which NIPSCO filed its original third-party complaint against Daniel Pivarnik and Robert Cauffman in December of 1991. Trial Rule 15(C) governs the relation back of amendments to pleadings and provides in part: (C) Whenever the claim or defense asserted in the amended pleading arose out of the conduct, transaction, or occurrence set forth or attempted to be set forth in the original pleading, the amendment relates back to the date of the original pleading. An amendment changing the party against whom a claim is asserted relates back if the foregoing provision is satisfied and, within the period provided by law for commencing the action against him, the party to be brought in by amendment: (1) has received such notice of the institution of the action that he will not be prejudiced in maintaining his defense on the merits; and (2) knew or should have known that but for a mistake concerning the identity of the proper party, the action would have been brought against him. T.R. 15(C). The critical question in determining whether an amendment adding a party relates back usually concerns whether a statute of limitations has run and whether, therefore, the party to be added will be forced to defend an action otherwise barred. See 2 Harvey § 15.9, at 60. What effect Trial Rule 15(C) has when the issue is jurisdiction over a case appears to be a question of first impression in Indiana. NIPSCO's amendment made the same claims regarding the same occurrence against Edward Pivarnik as its original third-party complaint had made against Daniel Pivarnik. NIPSCO's amendment, therefore, meets the requirement that in order to relate back, an amendment to change a party must assert a claim arising out of the same occurrence set forth in the original pleading. T.R. 15(C). Edward Pivarnik was served on August 29, 1992 with a summons issued from the Starke Circuit Court. The limitations period for the trespass and injury to property that NIPSCO complains of against Edward Pivarnik is six years. Ind. Code. § 34-1-2-1 (1993); Scates v. State, Indiana Highway Comm'n (1978), 178 Ind. App. 624, 625, 383 N.E.2d 491, 492. NIPSCO's pipeline was ruptured in August 1991. Edward Pivarnik therefore had actual notice of the action against him by NIPSCO within the limitations period. Ind.Trial Rule 15(C)(1). And while Edward Pivarnik may have been prejudiced in his choice of forum, his receipt of notice in August has not prejudiced his defense on the merits. Id. Finally, when he was served within the limitations period, Edward Pivarnik learned not only that the action would have been brought against him, but that it had been brought against him. Ind.Trial Rule 15(C)(2). We conclude that NIPSCO's amendment of its third-party complaint meets the conditions of Trial Rule 15(C) governing the relation back of amendments to pleadings. Because NIPSCO's addition of Edward Pivarnik relates back to the date of NIPSCO's original pleading, Edward Pivarnik's position in this case is the same as that of Appellants Daniel Pivarnik and Robert Cauffman, the third-party defendants originally named by NIPSCO.