TITLE FOUR — PARTIES; JOINDER OF CLAIMS AND REMEDIES; CLASS ACTIONS
Rule 16. Amended and Supplemental Pleadings
Amendment of a Pleading Distinguished from Amendment of a Filing.
A Filing Cannot Be Amended. A filing, once transmitted to the electronic filing system, cannot be amended, corrected, supplemented, or withdrawn, and the documents comprising it cannot be altered or replaced. No order of the court and no act of the Clerk shall alter the content of a filed document, the filing date the electronic filing system records, or the Bates number the system assigns. The remedy for a defective filing is a corrected refiling under Rule 5.3, which is a new filing bearing its own filing date.
A Pleading May Be Amended. A pleading may be amended by filing an amended pleading. An amended pleading is a new filing. It bears its own filing date under Rule 5.1 and its own Bates number, it is served by the electronic filing system upon its acceptance as provided in Rule 5, and it carries the fee its filing code bears under Rule 6.1.
Supersession. An amended pleading supersedes the pleading it amends for all purposes upon its acceptance for filing. Until that acceptance the earlier pleading remains the operative pleading. If the Clerk rejects the amended pleading under Rule 5.3, the earlier pleading remains operative, the amendment is of no effect, and the party’s remedy is a corrected refiling.
The Amended Pleading Shall Be Complete in Itself. An amended pleading shall set out in full every allegation, count, defense, and demand for relief upon which the pleader relies. Notwithstanding Rule 10, an amended pleading shall not adopt by reference any part of the pleading it supersedes. The caption shall identify the pleading as amended and shall state its ordinal designation.
Amendment Once as of Course. A party may amend that party’s pleading once as a matter of course, without leave of court and without the consent of any other party, no later than:
forty-eight (48) hours after the pleading is accepted for filing, where no responsive pleading is required; or
Other Amendments. In every other case a party may amend that party’s pleading only with the written consent of every opposing party, filed with the amended pleading, or by leave of court obtained on motion under Rule 7.1. The court shall freely give leave when justice so requires. In deciding a motion for leave the court shall consider the delay in seeking the amendment, any prejudice to the opposing party, any prior amendment of the same pleading, the futility of the proposed amendment, and the remaining pre-trial period under Rule 6.
Time to Respond to an Amended Pleading. Unless the court orders otherwise, a response required to an amended pleading shall be filed within the time remaining to respond to the original pleading or within forty-eight (48) hours after service of the amended pleading, whichever is later. A response already filed to a superseded pleading stands as a response to the amended pleading to the extent the amended pleading is unchanged, but a party may file a responsive pleading to the amended pleading in full.
Amendments to Conform to the Evidence.
Upon an Objection at Trial. If, at trial, a party objects that evidence is not within the issues raised by the pleadings, the court may permit the pleadings to be amended. The court shall freely permit the amendment when doing so will aid in presenting the merits and the objecting party fails to satisfy the court that the evidence would prejudice that party’s action or defense on the merits. The court may grant a continuance to enable the objecting party to meet the evidence.
Issues Tried by Consent. When an issue not raised by the pleadings is tried by the express or implied consent of the parties, it shall be treated in all respects as if it had been raised in the pleadings. A party may move at any time, even after judgment, to amend the pleadings to conform them to the evidence and to raise an unpleaded issue. Failure to amend does not affect the result of the trial of that issue.
How an Amendment to Conform Is Made. An amendment permitted under this subdivision is made of record by an order of the court stating the amendment, or by the filing of an amended pleading within the time the court fixes, or by both. Where the amendment is made by order alone, the order and the transcript or record of the proceeding constitute the amendment, and no alteration of any previously filed document is required or permitted.
Supplemental Pleadings.
Leave Required. On motion and reasonable notice, the court may, upon just terms, permit a party to file a supplemental pleading setting out any transaction, occurrence, or event that happened after the date of the pleading to be supplemented. The court may permit supplementation even though the original pleading is defective in stating a claim or defense.
Effect. A supplemental pleading does not supersede the pleading it supplements. The original pleading and the supplemental pleading are read together, and both remain operative.
Response. The court may order an opposing party to plead to the supplemental pleading within a time the court fixes.
Relation Back of an Amended Pleading.
When an Amendment Relates Back. An amendment to a pleading relates back to the date of the original pleading when:
the law that provides the applicable period of limitation allows relation back;
the amendment asserts a claim or defense that arose out of the conduct, transaction, or occurrence set out, or attempted to be set out, in the original pleading; or
the amendment changes the party against whom a claim is asserted, or the naming of that party, if paragraph (b) of this subdivision is satisfied and if, within the period allowed by Rule 4 for service of the summons and complaint, the party to be brought in by the amendment received such notice of the action that it will not be prejudiced in defending on the merits and knew or should have known that the action would have been brought against it but for a mistake concerning the proper party’s identity or username.
Notice to the Government. Where the State of Ridgeway, an agency or department of the State, a county or municipal government, or an officer of any of them sued in an official capacity is added as a defendant by amendment, the notice required by paragraph (1)(c) of this subdivision is satisfied if, within the stated period, process was delivered to the Attorney General or the Solicitor General as provided by 7 R. Stat. § 131.106, or to the administrative head of the agency or department as provided by 7 R. Stat. § 131.105.
Relation Back Is a Rule of Pleading Only. Relation back determines the date from which the claim or defense set out in an amended pleading is treated as pleaded, for the purpose of any applicable period of limitation and for no other purpose. It does not alter, and no order of the court may alter, the filing date that the electronic filing system records for the amended pleading, the date of its acceptance, its Bates number, or the sequence of the docket. A filing date is not assigned nunc pro tunc, and a corrected refiling under Rule 5.3 does not relate back to the defective filing it replaces.
Effect Upon Service and Default. An amended pleading that relates back does not dispense with service of process upon a party newly brought in, nor does it revive a period that has expired as to any other party.
Amendment Adding, Dropping, or Changing a Party.
Leave Required. An amendment that adds a party, drops a party, or changes the party against whom a claim is asserted may be made only by leave of court, whether or not the time for amendment as of course under subdivision (2) has expired.
Who May Effect the Addition. A new party may be entered upon a case only by the Clerk, a judge, a court administrator, or an attorney in good standing before the Ridgeway State Bar. A self-represented party may not add a party by amendment. Upon granting leave to a self-represented party, the court shall direct the Clerk to enter the party upon the docket and, where the party is newly brought in, to issue a summons for service under Rule 4.
Dropping a Party. An order dropping a party is given effect by an entry upon the docket. Dropping a party does not remove that party’s filings from the record.