I was reading Rule 81 of the Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure last night on a case and noticed something I had not thought of before. Rule 81(d) 4 of the Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure provides that:
"(4) No answer shall be required in any action or matter enumerated in subparagraphs (1) and (2) above but any defendant or respondent may file an answer or other pleading or the court may require an answer if it deems it necessary to properly develop the issues. A party who fails to file an answer after being required so to do shall not be permitted to present evidence on his behalf. " (emphasis added).
The last sentence to me is interesting and might be useful to use when a party is asking for a continuance just to buy time particularly on contempt issues. An idea would be that as part of the order of continuance require that an answer of some form be filed with the Court. If none is filed, they can put on no evidence under the rule.
No comments:
Post a Comment