Re: Cause of Action

Posted by poor lawyer (24.88.34.92) on August 11, 2002 at 17:09:00:

In Reply to: Cause of Action posted by Pat on August 09, 2002 at 11:59:20:

A "cause of action" is the legal term for the "reason you are suing." i.e. its the basis of your suit. For example, if you sue somebody for "breach of contract" and for "fraud," then you have two causes of action...breach of contract and fraud.

When a plaintiff files a Complaint, he or she sets out facts that consitute cause(s) of action. A defendant responds to the Complaint by filing an Answer. In an Answer, the defendant will, paragraph by paragraph, admit or deny the allegations in the complaint. Additionally, the defendant may raise "Affirmative Defenses." What the defendant means by that is, even if everything the plaintiff says in his complaint is true, these defenses would prevent the plaintiff from winning. By raising an affirmative defense, it simply allows the defendant to present evidence at trial as to the facts of the affirmative defense. Otherwise, the defendant could only present evidence countering the plaintiffs causes of action.

If a defendant files an Answer and Counterclaim, then through the counterclaim the defendant has raised his own causes of action against the plaintiff. i.e. the defendant has turned around and sued the plaintiff. In such a case, both the plaintiff and defendant are suing and being sued.

In the Plaintiff's Answer (also known as a reply, or an answer to a counterlcaim) that you have, they have raised certain Affirmative Defendants. The affirmative defendants they raised are very boilerplate language. Almost every Answer will have those in them.

"Failure to state a cause of action" is a defense that asserts that the plaintiff alleged certain facts that, even if all of those facts are proven true, the plaintiff would not be entitled to the relief he asked for. For example, if I sue for breach of contract, but don't allege that there was an actual contract, then I have "failed to state a cause of action." Unless there is a serious defect in your Answer and Counterclaim, this defense is usually not granted.

The second affirmative defense they raised says that all the damages you incurred were caused by you and not by them, and that they shouldn't have to pay for what you did to yourself. Again, its very standard, boilerplate language.

Judging from what you have said, it sounds like they filed a Complaint against you, you filed an Answer and Counterclaim against them, and they filed an Answer (or a Reply) to your Counterclaim. If they filed the initial Complaint, they cannot raise additional grounds to sue you in their Answer or Reply. (They would have to amend the Complaint to do that) Since they didn't, and couldn't, raise additional grounds for suit (i.e. additional causes of action), you DO NOT have to file another Answer in response to theirs. If all they did was raise defenses to your counterclaim, then the Pleadings are over now (i.e. everybody has already set out what facts they want to prove and why). Now the suit will proceed on.

poor lawyer, Esq.

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