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Rule 45. Definition and System (1988)

TEXT

Pleadings in the district and county courts shall

(a) be by petition and answer;

(b) consist of a statement in plain and concise language of the plaintiff's cause of action or the defendant's grounds of defense. That an allegation be evidentiary or be of legal conclu­sion shall not be ground for objection when fair notice to the opponent is given by the allegations as a whole;

(c) contain any other matter which may be required by any law or rule authorizing or regulating any particular action or defense;

(d) be in writing, on paper measuring approximately 81/2 inches by 11 inches, signed by the party or his attorney, and be filed with the clerk.

All pleadings shall be so constructed as to do substantial justice.

Amended by order of July 15, 1987, eff. Jan. 1, 1988.

ADVISORY OPINIONS

(No. 89) Question: Where legal conclusions are used in a pleading, what do the rules contemplate as the proper treatment of them?

Answer: By Rules 45 and 69 the court omits, the requirement that allegations be of "facts" that had been contained in the parent statutes. In the first of these rules the court adds "that an allegation be … of legal conclusion shall not be ground for objection when fair notice to the opponent is given by the allegations as a whole."

In our opinion, therefore, allegations of conclusions of law should be treated as good pleading unless fair notice is not given by them and should even then be considered as sufficient unless objection on that ground is made to them. See Rules 67, 90 and 274.

6 Tex. B.J. 77 (1943) reprinted in 8 Tex. B.J. 33 (1945).