## Facts

- A multi-vehicle highway दुर्घة occurred near Covington, Louisiana, involving a tractor-trailer insured by Pan American Fire & Casualty Co.
- The tractor-trailer collided head-on with a school bus, killing the bus driver and three children and injuring many others; a subsequent rear-end collision injured an additional passenger.
- Numerous actual and potential claimants asserted tort claims arising from the incident, and several lawsuits had already been filed.
- The insurer’s liability policy limit was approximately $100,000, asserted to be insufficient to satisfy all claims if liability were established.
- The insurer filed an interpleader action and posted security in the amount of the policy limit, seeking to require all claimants to litigate in a single federal proceeding and to stop separate suits.

## Issues

1. Whether a liability insurer facing multiple, unliquidated tort claims that may exceed policy limits may maintain interpleader under Rule 22 and the federal interpleader statute.
2. Whether claimants with separate tort demands are “adverse” for interpleader purposes when they compete for a limited insurance fund.
3. Whether an insurer may invoke interpleader while denying tort liability on behalf of its insured.
4. Whether enjoining parallel actions and consolidating liability and damages in interpleader improperly impairs claimants’ jury-trial rights.

## Decision

- The court held interpleader (or a bill in the nature of interpleader) was available to the insurer under both Rule 22 and the interpleader statute.
- The court permitted the insurer to proceed after posting security equal to the policy limits.
- The court authorized injunctive relief to prevent claimants from initiating or continuing separate proceedings concerning recovery against the limited insurance proceeds outside the interpleader action.
- The court contemplated a single proceeding to determine liability and damages (with a jury), followed by judicial allocation of the limited fund if aggregate verdicts exceeded policy limits.

## Legal Principles

- Interpleader is available when a stakeholder may be exposed to multiple claims against a single, limited fund, including in the context of insurance policy limits.
- Separate tort claimants are sufficiently “adverse” for interpleader when their recoveries compete for an inadequate common fund.
- A stakeholder may deny liability on the underlying tort merits and still maintain interpleader, so long as it tenders or secures the fund and seeks protection from multiple liability.
- Interpleader may be used to manage multiple unliquidated tort claims tied to one limited insurance policy.
- Consolidation through interpleader does not eliminate the right to a jury determination on liability and damages; the court may thereafter distribute the limited proceeds consistent with the jury’s findings.

## Conclusion

The court allowed the insurer to use interpleader to centralize numerous accident-related tort claims against a single, inadequate policy limit, enjoined parallel litigation as to the limited proceeds, preserved jury trials on liability and damages, and reserved to the court the later task of allocating the policy fund if total awards exceeded coverage.


Pan Am. Fire & Cas. Co. v. Revere, 188 F. Supp. 474 (E.D. La. 1960)