Federal Civil Procedure: Intervention of Right Granted Private Party in Government Antitrust Suit Under New Rule 24(a)(2)

Recent revisions of rule 24 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure removed certain restrictive interpretations which had been engrafted upon the old form. New rule 24(a)(2) states that a party may intervene of right in an action when he possesses an interest which may be substantially impaired by a determination in the proceeding, and he is not adequately represented by an existing party. In the first Supreme Court application of the new rule, the Court intimated that even in an antitrust context a pecuniary or possessory interest is not required for intervention. The Court failed, however, to delineate the representation requirement and the case may be of limited precedential value because of the clear nature of the government misconduct involved