Judge Lee W. Tsao, Case Number: 23NWCV03207, Date: 2024-08-01 Tentative Ruling

Judge: Lee W. Tsao, Case: 23NWCV03207, Date: 2024-08-01 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 23NWCV03207 Hearing Date: August 1, 2024 Dept: C

COLON v. LEUNG

CASE NO.: 23NWCV03207

HEARING: 08/01/24

Plaintiff’s unopposed Demurrer to Defendant AMY T. LEUNG’s Answer is SUSTAINED without leave to amend.

Plaintiff’s unopposed Motion to Strike Defendant AMY T. LEUNG’s Answer is MOOT.

Moving Party to give notice.

No Opposition filed as of July 29, 2024.

This action for breach of lease was filed by Plaintiff RAYMOND COLON (“Plaintiff”) against Defendant AMY T. LEUNG (in pro per) (“Defendant”) on October 9, 2023. Plaintiff alleges that this case arises from uninhabitable living conditions.

On November 3, 2023, Defendant filed the subject Answer to Plaintiff’s Complaint. In the Answer, Defendant asserts a general denial, and thirteen affirmative defenses.

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

The Answer sets forth a general denial. However, a general denial is only effective to controvert all material allegations of an unverified complaint. (CCP §431.30(b)(1).) Here, it is undisputed that Plaintiff’s Complaint is verified. Plaintiffs unopposed Demurrer to Defendant’s general denial is SUSTAINED.

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 first through thirteenth affirmative defenses consist of legal conclusions, devoid of factual support. No facts are alleged to support any Defendant’s the first through thirteenth 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 did not file an Opposition to the Demurrer. Therefore, the Court knows of no basis to grant leave to amend.

The Demurrer is therefore SUSTAINED without leave to amend.

The Motion to Strike is rendered MOOT by the Court’s ruling on the Demurrer above.