RULE 24. INTERVENTION
Effective Date: 3/1/1994
Obsolete Date: 3/1/2011
(a) Intervention of Right. Upon timely application anyone must be permitted to intervene in an action if: (i) a statute confers an unconditional right to intervene; or (ii) the applicant claims an interest relating to the property or transaction that is the subject of the action and the applicant is so situated that the disposition of the action may as a practical matter impair or impede the applicant's ability to protect that interest, unless the applicant's interest is adequately represented by existing parties.
(b) Permissive Intervention. Upon timely application anyone may be permitted to intervene in an action: (1) when a statute confers a conditional right to intervene; or (2) when an applicant's claim or defense and the main action have a question of law or fact in common. When a party to an action relies for ground of claim or defense upon any statute or executive order administered by a federal or state governmental officer or agency or upon any regulation, order, requirement or agreement issued or made pursuant to the statute or executive order, the officer or agency upon timely application may be permitted to intervene in the action. In exercising its discretion the court shall consider whether the intervention will unduly delay or prejudice the adjudication of the rights of the original parties.
(c) Procedure. A person desiring to intervene shall serve a motion to intervene upon the parties as provided in Rule 5. The motion shall state the grounds therefor and shall be accompanied by a pleading setting forth the claim or defense for which intervention is sought. The same Procedure shall be followed when a statute gives a right to intervene. When the constitutionality of an act of the legislative assembly affecting the public interest is drawn in question in any action to which neither the state nor any agency or officer thereof is a party, the parties raising the constitutional issue shall notify the attorney general of the state. The attorney general may intervene as provided in this rule on behalf of the state.
Rule 24 was amended, effective March 1, 1990; March 1, 1994; March 1, 2011.
Rule 24 is derived from Fed.R.Civ.P. 24
Rule 24 was amended, effective March 1, 2011, in response to the December 1, 2007, revision of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The language and organization of the rule were changed to make the rule more easily understood and to make style and terminology consistent throughout the rules.
Subdivision (a) was amended, effective March 1, 1990. The amendment is technical in nature and no substantive change is intended.
Subdivision (c) was amended, effective March 1, 1994, to provide that a party challenging the constitutionality of a state statute must notify the attorney general of the lawsuit.
SOURCES: Joint Procedure Committee Minutes of September 25, 2008, page 20; October 29-30, 1992, page 9; April 20, 1989, page 2; December 3, 1987, page 11; September 20-21, 1979, page 18; Fed.R.Civ.P. 24.
CROSS REFERENCE: N.D.R.Civ.P. 5 (Service and Filing of Pleadings and Other Papers), and N.D.R.Civ.P. 19 (Joinder of Persons Needed for Just Adjudication).