The original answer remains in effect and a defendant cannot assert a new affirmative defense in its answer to the supplemental complaint unless it is responsive to a new matter alleged.

On reply, the plaintiff argued that the Court should reject the defendant’s partial-constructive-eviction defense because it was not pleaded as an affirmative defense in the defendant’s answer.

Say you are filing an Answer to a Complaint. NC Rule of Civil Procedure 8(c) lists a host of affirmative defenses you might raise. They are: accord and satisfaction, arbitration and award ...

Defendants must respond by pleading defenses, affirmative defenses, or both. Typically, the law requires the party making allegations to prove the allegations.

While this is an understandable goal, practitioners attempting to achieve such an objective through filing affirmative defenses must be cautious to not end up doing more harm than good.