Opinion ID: 783388
Heading Depth: 6
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Opposing Party

Text: 96 Rule 13(a) makes compulsory only counterclaims against an opposing party in the lawsuit. Noel's wiretapping claims are logically related to and thus should have been brought as counterclaims in Sandra Hall's Clark County wiretapping and privacy suit. Therefore, Noel should have brought his wiretapping claims against Sandra Hall in the Clark County suit, and they are now precluded as unasserted compulsory counterclaims. 97 Brian Hall, however, was not a plaintiff— and thus not an opposing party—in Sandra Hall's Clark County suit. Therefore, Noel's wiretapping claims against him were not compulsory counterclaims in that suit. The Washington courts have adopted a strict reading of Rule 13(a)'s requirement that a pleader must bring compulsory counterclaims against any opposing party. In Nancy's Product, Inc. v. Fred Meyer, Inc., 61 Wash.App. 645, 811 P.2d 250 (1991), the Washington appeals court held: 98 To interpret the term opposing party in the context of the court rules so as to include a nonparty with an adverse interest is a non sequitur. We hold that an opposing party for purposes of CR 13(a) is one who asserts a claim against the prospective counterclaimant in the first instance. 99 Id. at 253. 100 Thus, even though Noel's present claims were compulsory counterclaims in the earlier suit as to Sandra, they were not as to Brian. We therefore reverse the district court's grant of summary judgment for Brian Hall with respect to Noel's wiretapping claims (Claim 1, 2, 6, 8, 9, and 10).