Employers Mutual Casualty Company v. Holman Building Co., L.L.C.

Summary

The Alabama Supreme Court affirmed the denial of Employers Mutual's motion for permissive intervention in litigation arising from allegedly defective Chinese drywall. The Court held that a trial court retains broad discretion under Rule 24(b) to deny intervention even when an insurer alternatively seeks a bifurcated trial, special verdict, or general verdict with interrogatories, and concluded that the complexity and coordinated management of the litigation justified the denial. Justice Murdock, dissenting, would have required allowing one of the requested forms of limited intervention because a later coverage action would be inadequate to determine the factual basis of a general verdict.