The preliminary text will tell you what you need to know about code pleading.Please read the following description of Dakota’s substantive and procedural law. Even if you have studied only federal pleading, you will be able to do this exercise.
The code procedure is historically enlightening and provides instructive contrast with rules procedure. 7(c) provided until 2007 that “emurrers, pleas, and exceptions for insufficiency of a pleading shall not be used.” Even so, this exercise has value for students focusing on rules procedures. Relevance to students planning to practice in a rules state will be less direct. Since this exercise explores code pleading, it will be of special interest to students planning to practice in a code pleading state. Later you will be asked to consider a motion for judgment on the pleadings. As the exercise progresses, the computer will describe the pleadings filed by the parties and ask you to identify the issues that would be raised on challenges to those pleadings.Dakota is a code pleading state, so the first challenge to plaintiff’s pleading will be a demurrer by defendant.
Peter Schuler, a former student at Dakota College, claims that David Dour, a professor at the college, called him a user of crack cocaine. The facts are the same as in Exercise Three, except that the action is filed in state court instead of federal court. This computer aided exercise presents a defamation action in the state of Dakota.