When may several people be parties to one civil case as joint litigants under the Civil Procedure Act, and which of the two routes fits the file's facts?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
In practice material, we read the complaint to see whose right or duty is the object of the action, and the underlying contract, event or legal rule pleaded for each party, since the provision turns on whether those rights are common or merely of the same kind, and on the cause of each.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading treats the provision as listing two separate routes: several people may be joint litigants where the right or duty that is the object of the action is common to them, or where it arose for each of them from the same factual or legal cause; and they may also be joint litigants where those rights or duties are of the same kind and arose from causes of the same kind.
Another reading notes the wording that several persons 'may become' parties as joint litigants, so joinder is open to them rather than something the provision requires, and it does not define what makes factual or legal causes 'of the same kind', so a file of merely similar claims does not settle that the second route is available.
Your judgment
Where several claims in one complaint look similar, what in the pleadings and the underlying contract or event would show the causes are of the same kind?
PRO SE does not make this decision or keep a case record on this public site.When to reconsider
We look at this again if the provision is amended to change either route or to address compulsory joinder, or if a court decision explains what makes factual or legal causes of the same kind for joint litigation.