Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

Re: Judgment on Pleadings

In California, a motion for judgment on the pleadings is pretty much the same thing as a demurrer, except that it can be brought much later in the case.

The "pleading under attack" is the complaint, at least in your situation. The court will look only at the complaint and any other pleadings (answers to cross-complaints, for example) the plaintiff has filed but may not consider any other evidence. It may, however, consider facts that are subject to judicial notice.

The court may take judicial notice of its prior orders or of admissions the plaintiff has made in his pleadings. Thus, if the court has ordered facts deemed admitted against a party as a sanction for failure to respond to discovery, it may consider those admissions when ruling on the motion.

Re: Judgment on Pleadings

"confined to the face of the pleading under attack" means that the court, in deciding the motion for judgment on the pleadings, will only consider the allegations in the complaint (and accept them to be true) as well as any facts that can be properly judicially noticed. (The Evidence Code, beginning at section 451, deals with judicial notice).

If you want the court to take judicial notice of a document, generally speaking, you will have to submit a certified copy of the document to the court, in advance of the hearing.

There are a variety of technical rules governing these motions, as well as law and motion matters in general. You should find yourself a decent real property litigator. We are real property litigators with extensive experience with title issues. If/When you are ready to proceed, please feel free to contact us.

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Re: Judgment on Pleadings

This type of motion is governed by Code of Civil Procedure Section 438. When a plaintiff files a motion for judgment on the pleadings, the plaintiff is alleging that the answer fails to state facts sufficient to constitute a legal defense to the allegations of the complaint. If the complaint alleges the proper alements for a quiet title lawsuit and your answer does not raise any proper legal defenses, the court could enter judgment against you.

For the most party, the court is restricted to reading the most recent version of the complaint and the most recent version of the answer to reach it's ruling. A defendant's answer in a quiet title must be under penalty of perjury and must contain detailed responses to the allegations of the complaint that either admitting or denying the allegations, paragraph by paragraph. The court can consider any admissions that you made in ruling on the motion. The court could also grant the motion if you failed to sing under penalty of perjury.

If the court grants the motion, it could grant the motion with or without leave to amend the answer. If leave to amend is not granted, you lose and the case is over.

If the court does grant leave to amend, you have the opportunity to amend the answer and fix the defects. If you acknowledge that defects exists, you need to demonstrate to the court how you can fix the defects and request leave to amend.

A quiet title action can be tricky to handle without an attorney. Feel free contact me if you need representation.

Re: Judgment on Pleadings

You are probably committing malpractice on yourself. You should attach the AG opinion as an exhibit and request judicial notice. If you are ready to be well represented, contact me.