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Our attorneys stay on top of changes in legislation, agency regulations, case law, and industry trends—then craft timely legal alerts to keep clients up to date on legal developments important to their business.

August 7, 2025

NYS Legislature Seeks to Restrict Time Period for Third-Party Actions

The New York State legislature recently passed the Avoiding Vexatious Overuse of Impleading to Delay (AVOID) Act in an effort to impose a time limit on impleading civil actions.1 The bill is currently with the New York State Senate for review.

Section (b)(1) of the act provides that a defendant seeking to assert a third-party claim based on a contract must file and serve a third-party summons and complaint within 60 days of serving an answer.2 If enacted, this legislation will force defendants to make decisions on filing third-party claims well before most discovery has been conducted. 

Under current law, there is no procedural time limit on when a defendant may implead a third party as long as the third-party claim is timely under the applicable statute of limitations. This allows defendants time to fully vet a plaintiff’s claim prior to bringing a third-party action. Should the AVOID Act become law, defendants will no longer have the benefit of discovery before bringing a third-party claim based on a contract. The 60-day time constraint does not apply to common law contribution and indemnification claims.

The AVOID Act has limited exceptions. For instance, the time periods do not apply to a third-party action against the plaintiff’s employer for contribution or indemnification due to a grave injury or when the employer’s identity was unknown until after those time limits expired, provided the third-party complaint is filed within 120 days of the defendant’s discovery of the employer’s identity or the existence of the grave injury. Otherwise, the third-party action may not proceed without written consent from both the plaintiff and the court. 

While the purpose of the AVOID Act seeks to prevent defendants from using third-party actions as a delay tactic, its potential impacts are detrimental to defendants with legitimate third-party claims that are discovered too late. For example, if it is not discovered until a deposition that a certain subcontractor was on-site on the day of the alleged injury, the primary defendant may be precluded from executing their contractual rights to indemnification. This likely will have two effects: 1) defendants will bring third-party actions that will eventually be dismissed after discovery or 2) defendants will be forced to bear the burden of claims that should have been the responsibility of a third party. The AVOID Act also puts time limits on the filing of subsequent third-party complaints, which will have similar effects.

If you have any questions regarding the content of this alert, please contact C. J. Englert, associate, at cenglert@barclaydamon.com; Taylia Hinds, summer associate, at thinds@barclaydamon.com; Matthew Larkin, Torts & Products Liability Defense Practice Area chair, at mlarkin@barclaydamon.com; or another member of the firm’s Torts & Products Liability Defense Practice Area.
                                                                                                         

1New York State Senate Bill S8071A.
22025 Bill Text NY S8071A.
 

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