The Connecticut motion to dismiss: four grounds only, and thirty days from your appearance

Two mistakes account for most failed motions to dismiss in Connecticut, and both come from importing federal habits.

The first is filing one to say the complaint does not state a claim. In Connecticut that is a motion to strike, not a motion to dismiss.

The second is counting thirty days from service. The clock runs from your appearance.

The four grounds

Section 10-30(a) is a closed list:

A motion to dismiss shall be used to assert: (1) lack of jurisdiction over the subject matter; (2) lack of jurisdiction over the person; (3) insufficiency of process; and (4) insufficiency of service of process.

All four are about the court's power to hear the case or the way it was brought. Nothing about the sufficiency of the allegations, and nothing about the plaintiff's legal theory. Those belong to the motion to strike under § 10-39, which sits later in the order of pleading and does entirely different work.

Filing a motion to dismiss on a merits ground does not merely fail. Because of the waiver rules below, it can cost you the jurisdictional objection you actually had.

Thirty days from the appearance

Section 10-30(b) and (c) set the deadline and the required contents:

(b) Any defendant, wishing to contest the court's jurisdiction, shall do so by filing a motion to dismiss within thirty days of the filing of an appearance. (c) This motion shall always be filed with a supporting memorandum of law and, where appropriate, with supporting affidavits as to facts not apparent on the record.

Three points.

The trigger is the appearance, not service. A defendant who appears promptly starts the clock promptly. One who appears later has thirty days from that later date — subject to the default rules, which are a separate risk. Responding to a Connecticut complaint covers the appearance itself.

A memorandum is not optional. "Shall always be filed with a supporting memorandum of law." There is no short-form motion to dismiss in Connecticut.

Affidavits are needed for facts off the record. Where the jurisdictional argument depends on facts not apparent on the record — where the defendant lives, how the marshal served the papers — the affidavit is what puts them before the court.

The other side's thirty days, and the forty-five

Section 10-31 runs the rest of the schedule:

(a) Any adverse party shall have thirty days from the filing of the motion to dismiss to respond to the motion to dismiss by filing and serving in accordance with Sections 10-12 through 10-17 a memorandum of law in opposition and, where appropriate, supporting affidavits as to facts not apparent on the record.

And the hearing:

(b) Except in summary process matters, the motion shall be placed on the short calendar to be held not less than forty-five days following the filing of the motion, unless the judicial authority otherwise orders. If an evidentiary hearing is required, any party shall file a request for such hearing with the court.

The forty-five-day floor exists so the opposition's thirty days can run before argument. And note the last sentence: if the motion turns on disputed facts, an evidentiary hearing does not happen automatically. Somebody has to ask.

Order of pleading, and how the objection is lost

This is the part that decides cases. Section 10-6 fixes the sequence:

The order of pleading shall be as follows: (1) The plaintiff's complaint. (2) The defendant's motion to dismiss the complaint. (3) The defendant's request to revise the complaint. (4) The defendant's motion to strike the complaint. (5) The defendant's answer (including any special defenses) to the complaint. (6) The plaintiff's request to revise the defendant's answer. (7) The plaintiff's motion to strike the defendant's answer. (8) The plaintiff's reply to any special defenses.

Section 10-7 then makes the sequence self-enforcing:

In all cases, when the judicial authority does not otherwise order, the filing of any pleading provided for by the preceding section will waive the right to file any pleading which might have been filed in due order and which precedes it in the order of pleading provided in that section.

Filing anything on the list waives everything above it. A request to revise waives the motion to dismiss. So does a motion to strike, and so does an answer.

Section 10-32 says the same thing about the substance:

Any claim of lack of jurisdiction over the person or insufficiency of process or insufficiency of service of process is waived if not raised by a motion to dismiss filed in the sequence provided in Sections 10-6 and 10-7 and within the time provided by Section 10-30 .

Two conditions, both required: in the sequence, and within the time. Three of the four grounds in § 10-30(a) are lost by failing either one.

The ground that cannot be lost

Section 10-33 exempts the fourth:

Any claim of lack of jurisdiction over the subject matter cannot be waived; and whenever it is found after suggestion of the parties or otherwise that the court lacks jurisdiction of the subject matter, the judicial authority shall dismiss the action.

"Cannot be waived," raisable at any point, by any party — and "after suggestion of the parties or otherwise," so the court may act on its own. Once found, dismissal is mandatory: the judicial authority "shall dismiss the action."

Subject-matter jurisdiction is therefore the one objection that survives an answer, a trial, and a judgment. The other three do not survive the next pleading you file.

Losing the motion does not end the fight

Section 10-34 protects a defendant whose motion fails:

If any motion to dismiss is denied with respect to any jurisdictional issue, the defendant may plead further without waiving the right to contest jurisdiction further.

Pleading over after a denial is not acquiescence. This is the counterweight to § 10-7: the sequence punishes a defendant who pleads before raising jurisdiction, not one who pleads after losing on it.

The thirty-day metronome

While all of this is happening, Section 10-8 keeps the case moving:

Commencing on the return day of the writ, summons and complaint in civil actions, pleadings, including motions and requests addressed to the pleadings, shall advance within thirty days from the return day, and any subsequent pleadings, motions and requests shall advance at least one step within each successive period of thirty days from the preceding pleading or the filing of the decision of the judicial authority thereon if one is required, except that in summary process actions the time period shall be three days and in actions to foreclose a mortgage on real estate the time period shall be fifteen days.

One step every thirty days, measured from the previous pleading or from the decision on it. Summary process runs on three days and foreclosure on fifteen, which is worth knowing before assuming the ordinary rhythm applies.

And discovery does not pause it: "The filing of interrogatories or requests for discovery shall not suspend the time requirements of this section unless upon motion of either party the judicial authority shall find that there is good cause to suspend such time requirements."

Which motion do you actually want?

A short checklist

1. Identify the ground first. If it is not one of the four, this is not the motion.
2. Diary thirty days from the appearance, not from service.
3. File nothing else first. A request to revise, a motion to strike or an answer waives the motion to dismiss under § 10-7.
4. Write the memorandum. § 10-30(c) makes it mandatory.
5. Attach affidavits for anything not apparent on the record.
6. Ask for an evidentiary hearing if the facts are disputed; you will not get one otherwise.
7. Expect argument no sooner than forty-five days after filing.
8. Raise subject-matter jurisdiction whenever you find it — § 10-33 keeps it alive.
9. Plead over after a denial without fear; § 10-34 preserves the point.
10. Keep the case advancing one step every thirty days under § 10-8, or three in summary process.

Where these rules live

• Conn. Practice Book § 10-6 — Pleadings Allowed and Their Order
• Conn. Practice Book § 10-7 — Waiving Right To Plead
• Conn. Practice Book § 10-8 — Time To Plead
• Conn. Practice Book § 10-30 — Motion To Dismiss; Grounds
• Conn. Practice Book § 10-31 — Opposition; Date for Hearing Motion To Dismiss
• Conn. Practice Book § 10-32 — Waiver Based on Certain Grounds
• Conn. Practice Book § 10-33 — Waiver and Subject Matter Jurisdiction
• Conn. Practice Book § 10-34 — Further Pleading by Defendant
• Responding to a Connecticut complaint
• Connecticut motion to strike

This page explains what the Practice Book says. It isn't legal advice, and Connecticut's summary process and foreclosure cases run on shorter timetables that this page only mentions in passing.