Responding to a Pennsylvania complaint: 20 days, preliminary objections, and why a general denial admits

Pennsylvania's response deadline is short and its answer rules are unusually unforgiving. The deadline gets quoted; the answer rules are what actually cost people cases.

Twenty days — and when it applies at all

Pa.R.C.P. 1026(a):

Except as provided by Rule 1042.4 or by subdivision (b) of this rule, every pleading subsequent to the complaint shall be filed within twenty days after service of the preceding pleading, but no pleading need be filed unless the preceding pleading contains a notice to defend or is endorsed with a notice to plead.

That second clause is a real condition, not boilerplate. A pleading that carries no notice to defend and no notice to plead doesn't require a response within 20 days — or at all.

Pa.R.C.P. 1026(b): a defendant served outside the United States has sixty days from service of the complaint within which to plead.

Rule 1026 governs pleadings subsequent to the complaint, which includes the answer, a reply to new matter, and a counter-reply.

What counts as a pleading

Pa.R.C.P. 1017(a) limits the pleadings in an action to: a complaint and an answer; a reply if the answer contains new matter, a counterclaim or a cross-claim; a counter-reply if the reply to a counterclaim or cross-claim contains new matter; and a preliminary objection and a response to it.

Rule 1017(c): "No formal joinder of issues is required."

Preliminary objections

Pennsylvania folds into one device what other systems split among motions to dismiss, motions for a more definite statement, motions to strike and venue motions.

Pa.R.C.P. 1028(a) limits preliminary objections to eight grounds:

1. lack of jurisdiction over the subject matter or the person, improper venue, or improper form or service of a writ of summons or a complaint;
2. failure of a pleading to conform to law or rule of court, or inclusion of scandalous or impertinent matter;
3. insufficient specificity in a pleading;
4. legal insufficiency of a pleading (demurrer);
5. lack of capacity to sue, nonjoinder of a necessary party, or misjoinder of a cause of action;
6. pendency of a prior action or agreement for alternative dispute resolution;
7. failure to exercise or exhaust a statutory remedy;
8. full, complete and adequate non-statutory remedy at law.

All at once. Pa.R.C.P. 1028(b): "All preliminary objections shall be raised at one time. They shall state specifically the grounds relied upon and may be inconsistent. Two or more preliminary objections may be raised in one pleading."

The permission to be inconsistent is worth noting — objecting on grounds that don't sit comfortably together is expressly allowed. What is not allowed is raising them in instalments.

Amending instead of responding. Pa.R.C.P. 1028(c)(1): "A party may file an amended pleading as of course within twenty days after service of a copy of preliminary objections. If a party has filed an amended pleading as of course, the preliminary objections to the original pleading shall be deemed moot."

That gives the party whose pleading was objected to a 20-day right to fix it rather than defend it, and doing so moots the objections outright.

The general-denial trap

This is the rule that distinguishes Pennsylvania pleading from almost everywhere else.

Pa.R.C.P. 1029(a): a responsive pleading "shall admit or deny each averment of fact in the preceding pleading or any part thereof to which it is responsive." A party denying only part of an averment must specify what is admitted and deny the remainder. Admissions and denials must refer specifically to the paragraph in which the averment appears.

Pa.R.C.P. 1029(b):

Averments in a pleading to which a responsive pleading is required are admitted when not denied specifically or by necessary implication. A general denial or a demand for proof, except as provided by subdivision (c) and (e) of this rule, shall have the effect of an admission.

In Texas a general denial is sufficient to put everything in issue. In Pennsylvania it operates as an admission. A defendant who files "Defendant denies each and every allegation" has, under the text of Rule 1029(b), admitted the complaint.

Two escapes exist, and they are narrow.

Rule 1029(c) — want of knowledge. "A statement by a party that after reasonable investigation the party is without knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief as the truth of an averment shall have the effect of a denial."

The words "after reasonable investigation" are part of the standard, not decoration.

Rule 1029(e) — certain damages actions. In an action seeking monetary relief for bodily injury, death or property damage, averments in a pleading to which a responsive pleading is required "may be denied generally" — except for a specific list of averments that must still be denied specifically.

Rule 1029(d): averments in a pleading to which no responsive pleading is required are deemed denied.

Affirmative defenses go under "New Matter"

Pa.R.C.P. 1030(a) requires all affirmative defenses to be pleaded in a responsive pleading under the heading "New Matter." The rule names them: accord and satisfaction, arbitration and award, consent, discharge in bankruptcy, duress, estoppel, failure of consideration, fair comment, fraud, illegality, immunity from suit, impossibility of performance, justification, laches, license, payment, privilege, release, res judicata, statute of frauds, statute of limitations, truth and waiver — "including but not limited to" those.

A party may also set out as new matter any other material facts that aren't merely denials of the preceding pleading.

Pa.R.C.P. 1030(b) carves out three that need not be pleaded: assumption of the risk, comparative negligence and contributory negligence.

Note the knock-on effect. New matter in an answer requires a reply under Rule 1017(a)(2), and that reply is itself due within 20 days under Rule 1026 — and is subject to Rule 1029(b). Averments of new matter that go unanswered are admitted the same way.

Actions that start without a complaint

Pennsylvania permits commencing an action by writ of summons. Pa.R.C.P. 1037(a): if an action is not commenced by a complaint, the prothonotary, on the defendant's praecipe, enters a rule on the plaintiff to file a complaint — and if the complaint isn't filed within twenty days after service of the rule, the prothonotary on the defendant's praecipe enters a judgment of non pros.

That is the defendant's tool for forcing a stalled case forward.

Default

Pa.R.C.P. 1037(b): the prothonotary, on the plaintiff's praecipe, enters judgment against the defendant for failure to file a pleading within the required time to a complaint that contains a notice to defend, or for any relief admitted to be due by the defendant's pleadings.

Rule 1037(c): in all cases the court, on a party's motion, may enter an appropriate judgment on default or admission. Rule 1037(d): where equitable relief is sought, the court enters an appropriate order on the judgment and may take testimony.

But Rule 1037(b) doesn't operate alone. Rule 237.1 requires a ten-day written notice of intention to file the praecipe before the prothonotary may enter that judgment — the subject of the separate guide on Pennsylvania's ten-day notice.

Where this leaves the twenty days

Missing the 20 days does not by itself produce a judgment, because of the Rule 237.1 notice. What it does is hand the plaintiff the ability to start that notice running.

Filing preliminary objections within the 20 days, or an answer that complies with Rule 1029, is what keeps the case in the ordinary course. Rule 237.2 and the form at Rule 237.6 provide for a written agreement extending the time to plead — the rules contemplate that agreement being in writing and naming a date.

This is not district court practice

Pennsylvania's Magisterial District Courts run on a separate set of rules with different deadlines and no preliminary objections. Everything above concerns the Courts of Common Pleas.

Where these rules live

• Pa.R.C.P. 1017 — Pleadings Allowed
• Pa.R.C.P. 1026 — Time for Filing; Notice to Plead
• Pa.R.C.P. 1028 — Preliminary Objections
• Pa.R.C.P. 1029 — Denials; Effect of Failure to Deny
• Pa.R.C.P. 1030 — New Matter
• Pa.R.C.P. 1037 — Judgment Upon Default or Admission
• Pa.R.C.P. 237.1 — Notice of Praecipe to Enter Judgment
• Pa.R.C.P. 237.3 — Relief from Judgment of Non Pros or by Default

The Pennsylvania courts publish self-help material at pacourts.us. This page explains what the rules say. It isn't legal advice.