SG Heritage Dictionary

Interpleader [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

A bill of interpleader in chancery, is where a person owes a debt or rent to one of the parties in suit, but, till the determination of it, he knows not to which, and he desired that they may interplead or settle their claims between themselves, that he may be safe in the payment.

Interpleader [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. One who interpleads.

2. A proceeding devised to enable a person, of whom the same debt, duty, or thing is claimed adversely by two or more parties, to compel them to litigate the right or title between themselves, and thereby to relieve himself from the suits which they might otherwise bring against him.

Interpleader Encyclopedia Britannica

INTERPLEADER, in English law, is the form of action used when a person is sued at law for the recovery of money or goods wherein he has no interest, and which are also claimed of him by some third party. Originally the only relief available to the possessor against such adverse claims was by means of a bill of interpleader in equity. The Interpleader Act, 1 & 2 Will IV. c. 58, enabled the defendant in such cases, on application to the court, to have the original action stayed and converted into a trial between the two claimants. The Common Law Procedure Act of 1860 further extended the power of the common law courts in interpleader; and the Judicature Act, 1875, enacts that the practice and procedure under these two statutes shall apply to all divisions of the high court of justice. The Judicature Act also extends the remedy of interpleader to a debtor or other person liable in respect of a debt alleged to be assigned, when the assignment is disputed. Interpleader is the equivalent of multiplepoinding in Scotch law.

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 13, p. 197
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