FEDERAL COURTS--THIRD-PARTY "PRACTICE--SOME JURISDICTIONAL PROBLEMS ARISING UNDER THE AMENDED FEDERAL RULES OF CIVIL PROCEDURE, EFFECTIVE MARCH 19, 1948

Third-party practice as originally adopted by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure was one of the bolder steps in the direction of integrated and complete litigation of all phases of a transaction. One of the principal problems that was forseen by the commentators and that has in fact developed in the cases is the jurisdictional limitation of the federal courts where no federal question is involved, and jurisdiction depends on diversity of citizenship or alienage. Rule 82 is explicit in stating that the Rules should be interpreted so as not to extend or limit the jurisdiction of the district courts. However, it was the hope of the commentators that the federal courts would take jurisdiction of third party claims without requiring a showing of independent grounds of jurisdiction by drawing an analogy to proceedings such as interpleader, cross-claims, counterclaims, intervention, and substitution of parties and by a liberal application of the ancillary concept.