Can a plaintiff amend his Statement of Claim to add a defendant to his Claim?

In Davies v. Elsby Bros. Ltd., [1961] 1 W.L.R. 170, [1960] 3 All E.R. 672, Pearce L.J. said at p. 674 that the prevailing point of view is that, so far as the addition of a plaintiff is concerned, it is wrong to allow the plaintiff to amend ex post facto if that would deprive the defendant of the benefit to which he had become entitled as of right under the statute of limitations. He continued: “In my opinion the addition of a defendant is governed by the same considerations as the addition of a plaintiff… the principle… prevents the amendment in this case if the amendment involves the addition of a party [defendant] and not the mere correction of a misnomer. That principle also applies to the substitution of a party, since substitution involves the addition of a party in replacement of the party that is removed.”