Complaint Lists No Cause of Action

[Camelchop]

My question involves collection proceedings in the State of: Illinois.

I have been attempting to educate myself on the legal aspects of collection. I was delivered a Summons to Appear on or about December 29th, 2011 to answer a complaint filing on December 19th, 2011 via appearance on 1/31/2012. It was the first response I received from the CA representing the Plaintiff after requesting Debt Validation on May 17th, 2011.

I was present on 1/31/2012. The CA did not show. I am attempted to represent myself in the matter. The Judge advised that because the Plaintiff's attorney was not present I could set the next court appearance at "a time convenient for you". So I chose 30 days. Next court date is March 6th, 2012.

I figured in the interim I could fire off another correspondence to the CA. Then I stumbled across a very helpful guide in preparing the proper documents in answering the complaint, presentation of the affirmative defenses, sworn denial, etc.

My question is: How do I tell if I am being sued for "Suit On Account" or "Breach of Contract". I reviewed some alternative complaints/petitions. And it seems a section prior to the paragraphs of the complaint is supposed to be present which states the cause for action.

Should a Motion to Dismiss be granted solely on the lack of inclusion of a cause for action? If so, is that all I need to list in my Motion To Dismiss? "Plaintiff's Complaint contains no Cause for Action."

It would seem to me I should withhold all potential affirmative defense statements connected with either "Suit On Account" or "Breach of Contract" until a Cause for Action specifies which it is the complaint is being filing under.

I look forward to your advice and further freeing me from my ignorance.

Appreciating in advance...

[Mr. Knowitall]

You determine the cause(s) of action raised against you by reading the complaint. Although attorneys often do use headings, they don't affect whether or not the complaint states a cause of action.

[Camelchop]

I appreciate your reply Mr. Knowitall. Given your information, that a cause for action does not have to be explicitly stated prior to the complaint in its own paragraph, how can I determine whether whether I am being sued as "Breach of Contract" or "Suit On Account"?

[Camelchop]

I appeared on this matter again today. The attorney for the Plaintiff did not show again. I am a little confused on a comment the Judge made. He offered he had reviewed the matter, noting I had filed an Answer to the Complaint along with a Sworn Denial and Motion to Dismiss. He said my actions were antagonistic (I wasn't clear if it was to the Court, the Plaintiff or both)...the way I took it, in particular, filing the Answer to the Complaint, then following with a Sworn Denial and Motion to Dismiss. I did a lot of reading and thought this was the basic course of action to pursue in my best interest toward resolution considering the Plaintiff escalated the matter to Court (after I requested debt validation and they never provided it in the six months following, just responded with a canned letter advised they had requested the documents from their client) and has to date not yet come forth with any sort of Reduced Terms For Relief. The Judge elaborated that I had filed my answer indicating No Cause For Action, then made a Motion for Dismissal which if there was No Cause For Action would not be necessary by default. And to me that does make sense, in fact I pondered that very notion while reviewing the Answers filed on other cases. He alleged that in turn my Motion To Dismiss inferred there WAS a Cause For Action. Please help me out here. The matter has been rescheduled for review in 60 days.

[Mr. Knowitall]

I have no access to your pleadings.

The judge seems to be stating that if the pleadings were sufficient such that you could both answer the complaint and present a substantive motion to dismiss, then you have clearly read or inferred from the complaint the cause of action that the plaintiffs are making against you. That is, if you actually don't know what they're claiming you cannot present a substantive defense because you would have no way of knowing what you're defending against.

[Camelchop]

Once again, I appreciate the prompt response. Your explanation does make absolute good sense to me. I exercised hours of research online at night, and in regard to the filing of an Answer, almost all overviews with systematic steps advised answering the complaint, then following with a Motion To Dismiss. That is the perplexing part of this experience to me. It seems to go against what my common sense was telling me, the Judge verified and you so eloquently massaged into words. I realize it is it is none other than speculation, but I invite any conjecture you might have for the prevalence of such advice (while understanding that when a person is seeking advice, receiving bad advice is a risk in the action-consequence paradigm).

[Camelchop]

My Motion To Dismiss was granted with Prejudice today. Am I correctly understanding the Plaintiff cannot re-file a suit for this debt?

[Mr. Knowitall]

If the case was dismissed with prejudice it cannot be refiled. There would be a possibility of the plaintiff seeking reconsideration of the ruling or attempting an appeal.

Was the dismissal predicated on the plaintiff's non-appearance at the hearing? If they were habitually failing to appear on scheduled court dates, I can see why the judge would lose his patience with them.

[Camelchop]

I appreciate your quick reply and information. To answer your question, yes, this would be the third non-appearance. At the prior appearance, the same judge advised he was not going to allow the matter to drag on if the counsel for the Plaintiff was not going to appear. I really suspected he would extend it another 30 or 60 days, but he didn't.

So, short of reconsideration of the ruling or filing an appeal, is this now generally considered "dead debt" and unworthy of being pursued by JDB's and Law Firms acting as CA's? I guess I want to get kind of excited to have it all behind me, but I am hesitant to actually allow it. Will I get a copy of the Judge's Ruling in the mail or will I have to retrieve one at the Clerk's office.

In the instance another entity would file suit against me for the debt, it is my understanding I would need to produce this document granting the Motion to Dismiss With Prejudice and file an answer to any complaint, designating no cause for action (because the matter was already ruled upon, in my favor) and request a dismissal. Is this correct?

[Mr. Knowitall]

I can't promise you that you're never going to hear from a junk debt buyer or other unscrupulous collector about the debt - I wish I could.... But as you have inferred that order, which is unlikely to be challenged, can be used as an absolute defense to any future effort to file a collection lawsuit over the underlying debt. (If it were set aside or overturned on appeal the litigation would resume, but I am not expecting that to happen.)