Legal Definitions - disjoinder

Disjoinder refers to the legal process where a court decides to separate parties or claims that were previously combined into a single lawsuit. Essentially, it's the act of undoing a 'joinder,' which is when multiple parties or different legal issues are brought together in one court case.

A court might order disjoinder if it believes that keeping the parties or claims together would make the trial too complex, confuse the jury, prejudice one of the parties, or simply be inefficient. The goal is to ensure that each legal issue or dispute between specific parties can be heard and decided fairly and clearly.

Here are some examples:

• Example 1: Separating Multiple Plaintiffs

  Imagine three different individuals, Sarah, David, and Emily, each separately purchased a smart home device from "FutureTech Corp." They all experienced different malfunctions and initially decided to join their lawsuits together, claiming a common issue with the product. However, during the pre-trial discovery phase, it becomes clear that Sarah's claim involves a software bug, David's claim is about a manufacturing defect in the hardware, and Emily's claim is about a misleading warranty statement. A court might order a disjoinder, separating their cases into three individual lawsuits. The court would do this because the specific legal issues, evidence, and defenses for each person are too distinct to be fairly and efficiently tried together in one proceeding.

  This illustrates disjoinder because the court is separating three plaintiffs who were initially joined, recognizing that their individual claims, despite being against the same defendant, are too different to be handled in a single, combined trial.

• Example 2: Separating Claims Against Multiple Defendants

  A small business owner, Mr. Henderson, sues both his former business partner, Ms. Chen, for breach of contract related to a failed joint venture, and a separate marketing agency, "AdVantage Inc.," for copyright infringement over a logo design. While both issues affect Mr. Henderson's business, the legal arguments, evidence, and remedies for the contract dispute with Ms. Chen are entirely different from those for the copyright dispute with AdVantage Inc. A judge would likely order a disjoinder, requiring Mr. Henderson to pursue separate lawsuits against Ms. Chen and AdVantage Inc., as combining them would create an unnecessarily complicated and confusing trial for the jury and the court.

  Here, disjoinder means separating the claims against two different defendants because the legal issues involved are unrelated, making a combined trial impractical and potentially unfair to all parties.

• Example 3: Separating Distinct Claims Within One Case

  A university, "State University," sues a former professor for two distinct reasons: first, for misusing university research funds for personal gain (a claim of fraud), and second, for violating a non-disclosure agreement by publishing confidential research findings (a claim of contract breach). Although both claims are against the same former professor, the evidence, legal standards, and potential damages for fraud are very different from those for a contract breach. To ensure clarity and efficiency, a court might order a disjoinder of these claims, allowing them to be tried as two separate legal actions, even if they remain between the same two parties. This allows each specific legal issue to be addressed without confusing the jury or complicating the presentation of evidence.

  This example shows disjoinder applied to claims within a single lawsuit, where the court separates distinct legal issues to ensure a more focused and manageable trial, even when the parties involved remain the same.