1. A suit to determine a right to property held by a usu. disinterested third party (called a stakeholder) who is in doubt about ownership and who therefore deposits the property with the court to permit interested parties to litigate ownership. • Typically, a stakeholder initiates an interpleader both to determine who should receive the property and to avoid multiple liability. Fed. R. Civ. P. 22. See STAKEHOLDER(1). Cf. IMPLEADER; INTERVENTION(1). [Cases: Interpleader
1. C.J.S. Interpleader §§ 2–4, 7, 9.]
2. Loosely, a party who interpleads.
— Also termed (in civil law) concursus.
“Interpleader is a form of joinder open to one who does not know to which of several claimants he or she is liable, if liable at all. It permits him or her to bring the claimants into a single action, and to require them to litigate among themselves to determine which, if any, has a valid claim. Although the earliest records of a procedure similar to interpleader were at common law, it soon became an equitable rather than a legal procedure.” Charles Alan Wright, The Law of Federal Courts § 74, at 531 (5th ed. 1994).
