Jeanette Carpenter v. Kenneth Thompson Builder, Inc.

CHANDLER, Justice,

for the Court;

¶ 1. We granted certiorari- in this personal-injury negligence action to clarify state law on the doctrine of claim-splitting. After new defendants were identified during discovery on her original complaint, Plaintiff Jeanette Carpenter filed a motion to amend her complaint to include the newly discovered defendants. A-hearing could not be scheduled in time for the trial court to approve -the amendment before the expiration of the three-year statute of limitations. In an effort to-avoid losing the opportunity to bring the new defendants into the litigation,…