In a recent case, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court imposed cost on one of the parties before it for unnecessarily impleading four officers of the same company in its suit.
“A company cannot be sued through four different officers...On account of wrong impleadment lot of time of this Court as well as that of the trial Court has been wasted,” Justice A P Lavande observed.
The original suit, pending before the Joint Civil Judge, Senior Division, Nagpur, was filed by Amar Sales Corporation (ASC) against Pieco Electronics and Electricals (now Philips India).
While making Pieco a respondent, ASC impleaded Pieco’s chairman-cum-managing director, its general manager, its executive director and one of its sales executives R N Mishra in the suit.
During the trial, Pieco’s lawyers claimed that Mishra was actually assisting ASC, the plaintiff. So the Court rejected Mishra’s evidence from Pieco’s side. Mishra challenged this order before the High Court.
But the first thing the HC noticed was that Pieco had been sued through four different officers, when impleading only its chairman would have been sufficient. ASC’s lawyer admitted it was a mistake, and sought permission to delete the names of the other three officers.