Cooper v. Fitzgerald
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
266 F.R.D. 86 (2010)
Seven plaintiffs, including the Coopers, sued USCIS officials (defendants) to compel action on their pending immigration applications, alleging a common delay caused by background-check processing; a USCIS declaration showed the delays were not actually caused by background checks, and the plaintiffs' applications involved two different application types at different processing stages with varying delay causes. The defendants moved to sever the Coopers' claims and dismiss the remaining plaintiffs under FRCP 20(a).
Whether a court may sever a party from other parties pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 21 if the parties are improperly joined under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 20(a).