Legal Definitions - nominal plaintiff

A nominal plaintiff is a party who is named as the plaintiff in a lawsuit but does not have a direct personal stake or interest in the actual outcome of the case. While they appear as the party initiating the legal action, the true interest in the litigation and its potential benefits or losses belongs to another individual or entity, known as the "real party in interest." The nominal plaintiff is included in the lawsuit primarily for procedural reasons or because they legally hold rights on behalf of the real party.

Here are some examples to illustrate this concept:

• Insurance Company Subrogation: Imagine a homeowner whose roof is damaged by a faulty product. Their insurance company pays for the repairs under the homeowner's policy. The insurance company then decides to sue the manufacturer of the faulty product to recover the money it paid out. Often, the lawsuit is filed in the name of the homeowner, even though the insurance company is the one funding and directing the litigation and will receive any money recovered. In this scenario, the homeowner is the nominal plaintiff because they are named in the suit, but the insurance company is the real party in interest, as they are the ones who suffered the financial loss and stand to benefit from the judgment.

• Trustee Suing on Behalf of a Trust: Consider a situation where a trust owns a valuable piece of art that is stolen due to the negligence of a security company. The trustee, who is legally responsible for managing the trust's assets for the benefit of its beneficiaries, files a lawsuit against the security company to recover the value of the art. The lawsuit might be filed with the trustee named as the plaintiff (e.g., "John Smith, as Trustee of the Green Family Trust"). While John Smith is the named plaintiff, he is acting in his capacity as trustee, and any recovered funds will go into the trust for the beneficiaries. Therefore, John Smith is the nominal plaintiff, and the beneficiaries of the trust are the real parties in interest.