K.S.A. 60-212.Defenses and objections; presentations, when and how; certain motions; waiver

Section 60-212 opens with the clock every defendant watches first: 21 days to serve an answer after being served with the summons and petition, or, when service was by publication, whatever period the publication notice set, so long as it's at least 41 days from the first publication. A party answering a counterclaim or crossclaim gets 21 days from being served with that pleading, and a party ordered to reply to an answer gets 21 days from the order unless the order says otherwise. Filing one of the motions this section allows resets the clock again -- 14 days after the court denies the motion or defers it to trial, or 14 days after a more definite statement is served.

Subsection (b) is the heart of the rule. Every defense to a claim ordinarily belongs in the responsive pleading, but seven of them can be raised instead by motion, before any answer is filed: lack of subject-matter jurisdiction, lack of personal jurisdiction, improper venue, insufficient process, insufficient service of process, failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, and failure to join a party required under K.S.A. 60-219. This is Kansas's version of the motion to dismiss, and the failure-to-state-a-claim ground under subsection (b)(6) is the one lawyers reach for most -- it tests whether the petition, taken as true, adds up to a legal claim at all. A motion raising any of these must be filed before the responsive pleading if one is required, and joining several defenses in one motion, or in the answer itself, doesn't waive any of them.

If a party moves for judgment on the pleadings under subsection (c), or moves under subsection (b)(6), and the court looks at material outside the pleadings themselves without excluding it, subsection (d) converts that motion into one for summary judgment under K.S.A. 60-256 -- and every party then has to get a reasonable chance to put in whatever material bears on the motion. Subsections (e) and (f) add two more tools: a motion for a more definite statement when a pleading is so vague or ambiguous that a party can't reasonably respond, due before any responsive pleading and pointing out exactly what's unclear, and a motion to strike an insufficient defense or redundant, immaterial, impertinent, or scandalous matter, which the court can act on itself or on a timely motion.

The waiver rules in subsection (h) reward diligence and punish delay differently depending on the defense. Lack of personal jurisdiction, improper venue, insufficient process, and insufficient service of process are waived if a party omits them from an early motion that should have included them, or never raises them by motion or in the first responsive pleading. Failure to state a claim, failure to join a required party, and failure to state a legal defense survive much longer -- a party can still raise them in a later pleading, in a motion for judgment on the pleadings, or at trial. Subject-matter jurisdiction is different still: if the court finds at any point that it lacks jurisdiction over the case, it must dismiss, and no party's conduct can waive that defect. Subsection (i) requires the seven listed defenses, and a motion under subsection (c), to be heard and decided before trial unless the court orders otherwise, and subsection (j) requires a guardian, conservator, or attorney answering for a minor, incapacitated person, or imprisoned defendant to deny every material allegation that's prejudicial to that defendant.