Document Type

Case Summary

Publication Date

8-22-2024

Case Synopsis

NRCP 25(a) and NRS 7.075 work in tandem to determine the requirements and obligations of an attorney when a party dies. NRCP 25(a) requires counsel to serve a notice of death to “eligible nonparty successors or representatives.” Under NRS. 7.075, the decedent’s counsel shall “file a notice of death and a motion for substitution of a party with the court.”[1] The Respondent, Dukes, died several years into litigation against the petitioner, Thomas Labs, LLC. Thomas Labs filed a motion to substitute Dukes with her Trust and its trustee, Hilliard. The district court granted motion with no opposition from Dukes’s counsel. Dukes’s counsel filed a motion to dismiss reasoning that the Trust and Hilliard were not Dukes’s proper representatives. The district court dismissed the Trust and Hilliard but returned Dukes to the suit. Thomas Labs petitioned probate court to appoint paralegal Shara Berry as special administrator. The probate court grated the motion and Thomas Labs moved to substitute Berry as the proper party. Duke’s counsel responded by moving to dismiss the case against Dukes, claiming that, under NRCP 25, the180-day deadline to move to substitute a personal representative had passed. The district court denied Thomas Labs's motion to substitute and granted the motion to dismiss under NRCP 25. The Court reversed the district court’s order and remanded the case.

Download

Share

COinS