Amazon.com, Inc. v. Otabek Tillyaev and U.Z. Freight Inc.

Background

Badara Ouattara sued Amazon.com, Inc. and Amazon.com Services, LLC for damages arising from a car accident. The defendants were alleged employers of the driver whom Ouattara blamed for the accident and alleged owners of the driver's vehicle. The case was removed from New York state court to the Southern District of New York based on diversity jurisdiction.

Otabek Tillyaev and U.Z. Freight Inc. were already defendants in a separate state-court action brought by Ouattara involving similar allegations. The federal court had previously denied an Amazon request for guidance about consolidating the cases and had denied in part an earlier request to add Tillyaev and U.Z. Freight Inc. as co-defendants under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 20. Amazon then sought permission under Rule 14(a) to add them as third-party defendants and requested an extension of the discovery schedule.

Motion to Add Third-Party Defendants

Rule 14(a) allows a defendant to bring in a nonparty who may be responsible for all or part of the plaintiff's claim against the defendant. Courts consider factors including whether the request was delayed, whether it would complicate or delay the case, whether it would prejudice the proposed third-party defendant or the plaintiff, and whether the proposed third-party complaint states a legally sufficient claim.

The court recognized that Amazon had missed the scheduling deadline for joining parties and had not explained why it failed to seek joinder earlier. But no trial had yet been scheduled, discovery was already underway, and discovery in the federal and state cases would likely substantially overlap because both arose from the same event. Adding the parties could make discovery more efficient and could help the cases proceed toward resolution or trial sooner.

The court found no undue prejudice to Tillyaev and U.Z. Freight Inc. because they were already defendants in a case involving the same facts and had previously consented to being joined under Rule 20. Ouattara had changed his position and no longer necessarily opposed adding them as third-party defendants, although he argued that he would be irreparably harmed unless they were also named as direct defendants. The court stated that Rule 14(a)(3) may allow Ouattara to assert claims against them arising from the same event, provided those claims satisfy ordinary jurisdictional requirements.

The proposed third-party complaint asserted contractual indemnification, contribution, common-law indemnification, and breach of agreement, including failure to secure liability insurance. The court concluded that the allegations likely stated a sufficient claim for purposes of the impleader motion. The court also noted that the proposed complaint alleged that Tillyaev and U.Z. Freight Inc. were domiciled in Ohio, which could establish diversity jurisdiction, but said that allegation would need to be reconciled with their domicile allegations in the state-court action.

The court therefore granted Amazon's motion to implead Otabek Tillyaev and U.Z. Freight Inc. as third-party defendants. It ordered Amazon to serve the third-party complaint within seven days of the order's date.

Discovery Extension

The court also considered Amazon's request to extend discovery. Although the November 15, 2022 discovery deadline had already passed, the court granted that motion in part to allow the newly added third-party defendants to conduct full discovery. The court directed all parties to work promptly to complete discovery without further delay and ordered them to follow the case-management and scheduling order that would be docketed.

Disposition

The motion to implead Otabek Tillyaev and U.Z. Freight Inc. was granted. The motion to extend the discovery schedule was granted in part. The order addressed adding parties and managing discovery; it did not decide the ultimate liability arising from the accident.