Court Opinion

ID: 9793316
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:46:02.134133+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:04:30.058030
License: Public Domain

STEWART, Justice
(dissenting):
The majority opinion denies the defendants a trial on the basis of a pleading deficiency that is so hypertechnical as to recall the happily forgotten elaborate intricacies of common law pleading, to say nothing of code pleading, which our Rules of Civil Procedure displaced several decades ago. It is true that failure of consideration is an affirmative defense under Rule 8(c), but in ruling that because defendants did not plead failure of consideration, they could not properly raise the issue by an affidavit on a motion for summary judgment at the outset of the case, the Court ignores the basic spirit of our rules of procedure and the fundamental policy that cases should not be decided on meaningless pleading deficiencies. See Cheney v. Rucker, 14 Utah 2d 205, 211, 381 P.2d 86, 91 (1963).
Notice pleading is designed to make the opposing party aware of the claims that will be asserted at trial. Since the claim of no consideration was clearly stated in Curtis Wilkins’ affidavit, which obviously was filed on behalf of himself and his wife, the contention that the plaintiff was not on notice of the defense has little merit. The plaintiff was in no way prejudiced by defendant’s failure to make a proper allegation in the answer and by her raising the issue for the first time in the affidavit. The case is a simple case; it is not one where substantial discovery had been done and where the raising of a new issue might have resulted in duplication of discovery efforts. Had defendant filed a motion to amend her pleading at the time of filing the affidavit, it undoubtedly would have been granted. See Lewis v. Moultree, Utah, 627 P.2d 94 (1981), and Thomas J. Peck & Sons, Inc. v. Lee Rock Products, Inc., 30 Utah 2d 187, 515 P.2d 446 (1973) (amendment per*495mitted before trial where adverse party was given fair opportunity to meet the issue raised).
This Court has consistently followed the rule that amendments to pleadings should be liberally allowed, see Cheney v. Rucker, supra, 14 Utah 2d at 211, 381 P.2d at 91, even after a trial has commenced, and even after judgment, Utah R.Civ.P. 15(b). See, e.g., General Insurance Co. v. Carnicero Dynasty Corp., Utah, 545 P.2d 502 (1976) (trial court erred in denying amendment after plaintiff’s evidence); Consolidated Steel-craft v. Knowlton, 114 Utah 368, 199 P.2d 149 (1948) (trial court erred in denying amendment after judgment); Hancock v. Luke, 46 Utah 26, 148 P. 452 (1915) (trial court erred in denying amendment after judgment); American Publishing Co. v. Fisher, 10 Utah 147, 37 P. 259 (1894) reversed on other grounds, 166 U.S. 464, 17 S.Ct. 618, 41 L.Ed. 1079 (1897) (amendment at trial). The majority opinion, in a rigid and doctrinaire application of the rules, denies the defendant the benefit of that rule even though the plaintiff was fully aware of the claim and was fully able to rebut the claim by an affidavit if it had the facts to do so.
Nothing would have been added to this case by filing a motion to amend the pleadings at the same time that the affidavit was filed asserting the defense. The affidavit itself constituted sufficient notice. Indeed, it is not infrequent that a motion for summary judgment must be defended by a defendant even before he files an answer. In such a case, an affidavit may be the only notice which is given or required to be given the plaintiff. Certainly under those circumstances the majority rule could not be applied, and I am at a loss to understand why it should apply here.
Finally, the majority’s contention that the issue was not raised in the trial court rests entirely on the majority’s view that notice could only be given by the answer. In my view, the affidavit filed was sufficient notice.
DURHAM, J., concurs in the dissenting opinion of STEWART, J.