Opinion ID: 2013511
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Waiver for Failure to Plead an Affirmative Defense.

Text: Under Iowa Rule of Civil Procedure 88 (recently renumbered as rule 1.421), [e]very defense to a claim for relief in any pleading must be asserted in the pleading responsive thereto, or in an amendment to the answer within 20 days after service of the answer.... The question here is whether parental immunity is an affirmative defense that must be pled. It appears that it is, and by failing to raise the issue in his answer, the defendant has waived it. An affirmative defense is `one resting on facts not necessary to support plaintiff's case.' Bond v. Cedar Rapids Television Co., 518 N.W.2d 352, 355 (Iowa 1994) (quoting Erickson v. Wright Welding Supply, Inc., 485 N.W.2d 82, 86 (Iowa 1992)). Thus, any defense which would avoid liability although admitting the allegations of the petition is an affirmative defense. Erickson, 485 N.W.2d at 86. It is clear under this standard that parental immunity, as it is now applied in Iowa after Wagner, is an affirmative defense. A defendant must show the alleged negligent acts involved an exercise of either parental authority over the child or an exercise of parental discretion in providing care. See Wagner, 340 N.W.2d at 256. Furthermore, Raymond admitted his negligence here, further demonstrating his claim of parental immunity must be an affirmative defense. While it does not appear this court has directly held parental immunity is an affirmative defense, it has held qualified immunity is. See Dickerson v. Mertz, 547 N.W.2d 208, 214-15 (Iowa 1996) (holding qualified immunity, applicable to acts of executive branch officials carried out in furtherance of their official duties, is an affirmative defense that must be pled). This court has also noted instances in which immunity has been pled as an affirmative defense. See Jain v. State, 617 N.W.2d 293, 296 (Iowa 2000) (noting State pled, as an affirmative defense, the discretionary function exemption to the State's waiver of sovereign immunity); Kulish v. Ellsworth, 566 N.W.2d 885, 888 (Iowa 1997) (defendants amended their answer to assert the affirmative defense of governmental immunity for acts or omissions related to an emergency response under Iowa Code section 670.4(11)); Turner, 304 N.W.2d at 786 ([D]efendant asserted the doctrine of parental immunity as an affirmative defense.). Other states have specifically held that a claim of parental immunity is an affirmative defense. The Ohio Supreme Court has held immunity is generally an affirmative defense and cited the following, among others, as examples of affirmative defenses: sovereign immunity, official immunity, parental immunity, policeman/fireman immunity, charitable immunity, and judicial immunity. BCL Enters., Inc. v. Ohio Dep't of Liquor Control, 77 Ohio St.3d 467, 675 N.E.2d 1, 4 (Ohio 1997); see also McGee v. McGee, 936 S.W.2d 360, 369 (Tex.App.1996) (Parental immunity is an affirmative defense that ordinarily must be pled to avoid waiver.); Elkington v. Foust, 618 P.2d 37, 40 (Utah 1980) (parental immunity is an affirmative defense that must be pleaded). But see Faul v. Dennis, 118 N.J.Super. 338, 287 A.2d 470, 472 (N.J.Super.Ct.Law Div.1972) (Parental immunity is not an affirmative defense because surprise is fundamental to the requirement to plead certain defenses affirmatively and it is difficult to imagine a situation where a party could claim surprise to the defense of parental immunity.).