{"id":4887,"date":"2020-01-21T08:04:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-21T00:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/?p=4887"},"modified":"2020-06-06T14:40:40","modified_gmt":"2020-06-06T06:40:40","slug":"emasculating-the-motion-to-dismiss-summary-discussion-of-2019-amendments-to-the-1997-rules-of-civil-procedure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/emasculating-the-motion-to-dismiss-summary-discussion-of-2019-amendments-to-the-1997-rules-of-civil-procedure\/","title":{"rendered":"Emasculating the Motion to Dismiss: Summary \/ Discussion of 2019 Amendments to the 1997 Rules of Civil Procedure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>There are major changes in the rules governing motions to dismiss under the&nbsp; <em><a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/rules-of-court-2019-proposed-amendments-to-the-1997-rules-of-civil-procedure\/\">2019 Proposed Amendments to the 1997 Rules of Civil Procedure<\/a><\/em> (hereinafter, &#8220;2019 Amendments&#8221;), which takes effect on <strong>1 May 2020<\/strong>. To begin with, the 2019 Amendments deleted the entire Rule 16 (&#8220;Motion to Dismiss&#8221;) of the 1997 Rules of Civil Procedure (hereinafter, &#8220;1997 Rules&#8221;). There seems to be an intent to strongly discourage the use of motions to dismiss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-rounded\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"840\" height=\"623\" src=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Motion-to-Dismiss-under-the-2019-Amendments-to-the-1997-Rules-of-Civil-Procedure.png\" alt=\"Motion to Dismiss under the 2019 Amendments to the 1997 Rules of Civil Procedure\" class=\"wp-image-8004\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">I. PERIOD TO FILE NOT PROVIDED<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The <em>2019 Amendments<\/em> does not expressly provide when a motion to dismiss may be filed, as well as the effect of the filing\/denial of the motion. Under the old <em>1997 Rules<\/em>, a motion to dismiss may be filed before the filing of the Answer and, if the motion is denied, the movant still has at least 5 days within which to file an Answer. These provisions are not found in the <em>2019 Amendments<\/em>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most logical implication of the deletion is this &#8212; the filing of a motion to dismiss does NOT toll the running of the 30-day period to file an Answer (the <em>2019 Amendments<\/em> also extended the reglementary period from 15 days to 30 calendar days). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">II. GROUNDS FOR MOTION TO DISMISS<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>A motion to dismiss is a prohibited motion (Rule 15, Sec. 12), except when it is filed on the basis of the following grounds:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>1) &nbsp;That the court has no jurisdiction over the subject matter of the claim;<br \/><\/li><li>2) &nbsp;That there is another action pending between the same parties for the same<br \/>cause; or<br \/><\/li><li>3) &nbsp;That the cause of action is barred by a prior judgment or by the statute of<br \/>limitations;&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The issuance of an order granting a motion to dismiss or <a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/affirmative-defenses-in-the-answer-summary-discussion-of-the-2019-amendments-to-the-1997-rules-of-civil-procedure\/\">affirmative defenses<\/a>, based on the three grounds enumerated above, bars the refiling of the same action or claim.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Except these three grounds, defenses and objections not pleaded either in a motion to dismiss or in the answer are deemed waived (Rule 9, Sec. 1). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">III. VOLUNTARY APPEARANCE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>A motion to dismiss is a prohibited motion if not based on the three grounds mentioned above. This may give rise to the impression that only three grounds may be used&nbsp;to support a motion to dismiss. However, the <em>2019 Amendments<\/em> recognizes one more ground &#8212; lack of jurisdiction over the person of the defendant (Rule 14, Sec. 23).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rule 14 of the <em>2019 Amendments<\/em> provides that the inclusion in a motion to dismiss of other grounds aside from lack of jurisdiction over the person of the defendant shall be deemed a voluntary appearance of the defendant (Sec. 23). This is a reversal of the previous rule (Rule 14, Sec. 20 of the <em>1997 Rules<\/em>) that the inclusion in a motion to dismiss of other grounds aside from lack of jurisdiction over the person of the defendant shall <strong>not<\/strong> be deemed a voluntary appearance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Incidentally, in case of a motion to dismiss based on improper service of summons, the court may deputize the defendant&#8217;s counsel to serve the summons. [See also <a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/rules-on-summons-summary-discussion-of-the-2019-proposed-amendments-to-the-1997-rules-of-civil-procedure\/\">Rules on Summons<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In case of affirmative defenses, however, raising other grounds (in addition to lack of jurisdiction over the person of the defendant) does not amount to a voluntary appearance.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">IV. HEARING ON MOTION TO DISMISS<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>While a motion to dismiss is a <a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/rules-on-motions-summary-discussion-on-the-2019-amendments-to-the-rules-of-civil-procedure\/\">litigious motion<\/a> (Rule 15, Section 5), the court has discretion not to hold a hearing and proceed to rule on the motion. [See <a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/rules-on-motions-summary-discussion-on-the-2019-amendments-to-the-rules-of-civil-procedure\/\">Rules on Motions<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If the same ground is raised as an <a href=\"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/affirmative-defenses-in-the-answer-summary-discussion-of-the-2019-amendments-to-the-1997-rules-of-civil-procedure\/\">affirmative defense<\/a>, the court may <em>motu proprio<\/em> dismiss the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are major changes in the rules governing motions to dismiss under the&nbsp; 2019 Proposed Amendments to the 1997 Rules of Civil Procedure (hereinafter, &#8220;2019 Amendments&#8221;), which takes effect on 1 May 2020. To begin with, the 2019 Amendments deleted the entire Rule 16 (&#8220;Motion to Dismiss&#8221;) of the 1997 Rules of Civil Procedure (hereinafter, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1162,1190,196,1189,195,540],"class_list":["post-4887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-litigation-category","tag-2019-proposed-amendments-to-the-1997-rules-of-civil-procedure","tag-affirmative-defenses","tag-civil-procedure","tag-motion-to-dismiss","tag-rules-of-court","tag-rules-of-procedure"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4887"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8005,"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4887\/revisions\/8005"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pnl-law.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}