Opinion ID: 3166758
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Faith Temple’s Complaint

Text: [¶27] When the plaintiff moves for judgment on the pleadings, the motion “challenges the legal sufficiency of the answer.” 2 Harvey, Maine Civil Practice § 12.14 at 432 (3d ed. 2015); see also Cunningham v. Haza, 538 A.2d 265, 267 n.2 (Me. 1988). Therefore, “[i]t can be effective only when the sole defense is an affirmative one, because any denials of fact by defendant will be taken as true for purposes of the motion and thus will have to be tried.” 2 Harvey, Maine Civil Practice § 12.14 at 432; see also Cunningham, 538 A.2d at 267 (“Conflict between pleadings can be reached only by motion for summary judgment or trial.”). [¶28] Here, DiPietro denied almost every allegation in the complaint, contesting the amount of the judgment and the allegation that the judgment had not been paid. Because, on the motion to dismiss, the court was required to take those denials in DiPietro’s answer as true, see 2 Harvey, Maine Civil Practice § 12.14 at 432, there were significant factual and legal issues that needed to be adjudicated or ultimately tried. [¶29] In addition, DiPietro raised thirty-two affirmative defenses, some of them—such as laches, estoppel, and fraud—implicating factual issues that remain unresolved. In some circumstances, the sheer number of affirmative defenses could cause a court to view them as excessive in number and interposed for the purpose of delay, thereby leading to the prospect of sanctions. See Fraser Emps. 18 Fed. Credit Union v. Labbe, 1998 ME 71, ¶¶ 8-9, 708 A.2d 1027 (affirming an award of sanctions imposed pursuant to M.R. Civ. P. 11 based on the trial court’s finding that many of the twenty-three affirmative defenses and eleven counterclaim counts were factually unsupported and interposed for the purpose of delay). Here, however, the court entered a judgment adverse to DiPietro not as a sanction but based on a determination that no facts had been pleaded to support the merits of his affirmative defenses. Such a ruling must await further development of the record. Thus, the court erred by granting judgment on the pleadings to Faith Temple on its complaint and on DiPietro’s affirmative defenses.