Harvey Aluminum, Inc. v. American Cyanamid Co.

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that Rule 41(a) does not permit voluntary dismissal of an- ything less than the entire action, even an entire defendant
• suggesting that plaintiffs use Rule 21, rather than Rule 41, to eliminate a party from a multiparty action
• explaining that Rule 41(a)(1) provides for the voluntary dismissal of an action, while Rule 21 provides that parties may be dropped by order of the court on motion, so Rule 21 should be used to eliminate a party
• “The proper method of eliminating one defendant as a party would be to move that he be dropped, not by moving for a voluntary dismissal.”
• “The proper method of eliminating one defendant as a party would be to move that he be dropped, not by moving for a voluntary dismissal.”
• “Rule 41(a)(1) provides for the voluntary dismissal of an ‘action’ not a ‘claim’; the word ‘action’ as used in the Rules denotes the entire controversy, whereas ‘claim’ refers ,to what has traditionally been termed ‘cause of action.’ ”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).