Judge: Lee W. Tsao, Case: 22NWCV01495, Date: 2023-10-19 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 22NWCV01495    Hearing Date: October 19, 2023    Dept: C

EDWARDS v. HARDGRAVE

CASE NO.: 22NWCV01495

HEARING:  10/19/23

#6

Plaintiff’s Demurrer to Defendant BILL DEAN HARDGRAVE’s Answer is SUSTAINED with 30 days leave to amend. 

Moving Party to give notice.

This personal injury (motor vehicle) action was filed by Plaintiffs DEBORAH EDWARDS and BENJAMIN WINSTON EDWARDS (“Plaintiffs”) against Defendant BILL DEAN HARDGRAVE (“Defendant”) on December 5, 2022.

Plaintiffs allege that “prior to the collision, Defendant… knew that he had to operate his vehicle… but he knowingly and intentionally consumer quantities of alcohol prior to operating his vehicle…. Defendant… entered his automobile and operated his vehicle on the public streets and highways in a severely impaired condition, at a speed significantly over the speed limit, and without any attention to the vehicles and traffic lights on the road.” (Complaint ¶9.)

On May 1, 2023, 2023, Defendant filed the subject Answer to Plaintiff’s Complaint. In the Answer, Defendant asserts a general denial, and twenty affirmative defenses.

Plaintiff specially and generally demurs to Defendant’s first through twentieth affirmative defenses.

CCP §430.20(a) states that a demurrer to an Answer is properly sustained where, “[t]he answer does not state facts sufficient to constitute a defense.” Here, Defendant’s Answer consists of legal conclusions, devoid of factual support. No facts are alleged to support any Defendant’s second through seventeenth affirmative defenses. Rather, “the allegations are proffered in the form of terse legal conclusions, rather than as facts ‘averred as carefully and with as much detail as the facts which constitute the cause of action and are alleged in the complaint. [Cite.]” (FPI Development, Inc. v. Nakashima (1991) 231 Cal.App.3d 367, 384.)

Defendant filed a boilerplate Answer, devoid of any factual support. The Demurrer is SUSTAINED with 30 days leave to amend for failure to state facts sufficient to constitute an affirmative defense.