Third-Party Practice in Litigation
CPLR § 1007 is a section in our Civil Practice Law and Rules that governs third-party practice. After a defendant serves an answer to a complaint, that defendant may want to proceed against a person or a party who is, or may be, liable to that defendant for all or part of the plaintiff’s claim. This is accomplished through the filing of a third-party summons and complaint in the same county where the main action is pending.
A separate index number isn’t issued for this new action (usually a “TP” suffix or prefix is created to the original index number), but the clerk of court does collect a separate index number fee.
The timing of third-party practice can sometimes be strategic or other times delayed while an investigation or evaluation takes place. Usually this is done for indemnification, which can be either pursuant to a contract (contractual indemnification) or as a matter of law (common law indemnification). If third-party practice is started after the primary action has been proceeding for a while – sometimes even years – it can result in extensive delays in the primary case, including delays in the court system. Adding successive third-party defendants late in the case can stall discovery, postpone trials, and create leverage through delay rather than the court process.
There have been few rules governing the timing of third-party practice other than the statute of limitations considerations for the particular matter.
New Legislation Addresses the Issue
Entitled the AVOID Act (Avoiding Vexatious Overuse of Impleading to Delay), Governor Hochul recently signed an amendment to CPLR § 1007 establishing fixed timelines governing third-party practice.
Third-party actions based on contractual indemnification now have to be filed within 60 days after serving an answer or 60 days after learning of potential common law liability. If this deadline isn’t met, the third-party action will be severed from the primary action or dismissed without prejudice. Second third-party actions are to be filed within 45 days, and subsequent third-party actions within 30 days.
There will be no impleader action once the trial note of issue is filed. Also, the statute does not apply to claims involving the “grave injury” rule.
Governor Hochul is seeking to fix a long-standing procedural problem of civil cases being stretched out for years as a result of third-party practice.
The Act unanimously passed the Assembly (136-0) and the Senate (59-0) on June 13, 2025.
It will go into effect 120 days from December 20, 2025.
