Brief Fact Summary. Plaintiff sued Defendant, alleging Plaintiff was injured by a forklift owned Defendant and operated by Defendant’s employee, which Defendant generally denied in its answer to the complaint. After the statute of limitations had passed, discovery revealed that Defendant did not own the forklift and Defendant’s employee was not operating the forklift. Plaintiff sought a pretrial order that Defendant admitted ownership of the forklift and agency of the operator of the forklift, on the grounds that Defendant’s general denial was ineffective.
Synopsis of Rule of Law. Under Rule 8(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, allegations in a complaint that are not specifically denied are deemed admitted.
Since this is a pre-trial order, it may be modified at the trial if the trial judge determines from the facts which then appear that justice so requires.
View Full Point of LawIssue. Was the general denial by Defendant to Plaintiff’s allegations that Plaintiff was injured by a forklift owned by Defendant effective to deny that Defendant owned the forklift?
Held. No. Ownership of the forklift and Johnson’s agency are deemed admitted by Defendant.
The general denial of Plaintiff’s allegations that Plaintiff was injured by a forklift owned, operated, and controlled by Defendant was ineffective because Defendant admitted in its letter to the insurance company that Plaintiff was injured by a forklift. In order to be effective, Defendant must have specifically denied ownership of the forklift.
Under Pennsylvania law, an allegation of agency is deemed admitted if the Defendant seeks to amend the answer after the time limitation for doing so has expired.
Under the doctrine of equitable estoppel, Defendant cannot take advantage of Plaintiff’s mistake when the mistake was perpetuated by Defendant’s inaccurate responses regarding ownership and agency.
Discussion. This case illustrates the consequences of generally denying allegations in a complaint. In this situation, estoppel is an additional ground for deeming the facts to be admitted because Defendant knew that it did not own the forklift yet failed to apprise Plaintiff of this fact. In practice, a complaint should always be answered paragraph by paragraph.