Hohlbein v. Heritage Mutual Insurance Co.

Heritage Mutual Insurance Co. (Heritage) (defendant) interviewed Norbert Hohlbein (plaintiff) for the position of vice president of sales between February and December 1982. Winston Howell (plaintiff) claimed that he was interviewed in April of 1981 for the same position. James R. Beckey (plaintiff) asserted that he interviewed for the position of regional claims manager between August and September 1983. Edward White (plaintiff) interviewed for the position of training and educational specialist in March of 1982. Hohlbein, Howell, Beckey, and White (the former employees) claimed to have accepted the roles based on some or all of Heritage’s material misrepresentations or omissions regarding the duties, nature, and scope of the roles, promotion potential, the provision of relocation expenses, and the existence of an at-will probationary period. The former employees filed a single lawsuit under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure (FRCP) 20(a) against Heritage in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin under its diversity jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a)(1), each asserting three claims for relief on theories of reckless misrepresentation, fraud, and breach of contract. Heritage filed a motion to sever the claims of the individual former employees into four separate actions pursuant to FRCP 20(a) and 21 on the ground that their claims did not arise “out of the same transaction, occurrence, or series of transactions or occurrences” and did not involve common questions of law or fact. Heritage also claimed that allowing the joinder would likely confuse the jury. The former employees objected to severance.