Responding to a South Dakota complaint: 30 days to answer, but 20 for a cross-claim

South Dakota puts its civil procedure in statutes, in chapter 15-6 of the South Dakota Codified Laws, numbered to track the federal rules — § 15-6-12 is Rule 12, § 15-6-55 is Rule 55.

The trap here is arithmetic. The answer period is 30 days. The cross-claim answer and the reply are 20. Most states use one number for all three, and carrying 30 across by habit will cost you.

The deadline

SDCL § 15-6-12(a):

A defendant shall serve the answer within thirty days after the service of the complaint upon defendant, except when otherwise provided by statute or rule. A party served with a pleading stating a cross-claim shall serve an answer within twenty days after the service. The plaintiff shall serve a reply to a counterclaim in the answer within twenty days after service of the answer or, if a reply is ordered by the court, within twenty days after service of the order, unless the order otherwise directs.

The obligation throughout is to serve.

And "except when otherwise provided by statute or rule" is worth a look. South Dakota has statutory response periods in particular categories of case, and § 15-6-12 defers to them.

After a motion — including after an appeal

The same subdivision continues:

The service of a motion permitted under § 15-6-12 alters these periods of time as follows, unless a different time is fixed by order of the court: (1) If the court denies the motion or postpones its disposition until the trial on the merits, the responsive pleading shall be served within ten days after notice of the court's action; (2) If the court grants a motion for a more definite statement, the responsive pleading shall be served within ten days after the service of the more definite statement; (3) If an appeal is taken from an order sustaining a motion to dismiss and such order is thereafter reversed, the responsive pleading shall be served within twenty days after the judgment or order of reversal is filed in the trial court.

Subparagraph (3) is unusual and genuinely useful. Most states say nothing about what happens when a dismissal is reversed on appeal, leaving the parties to guess or to ask the trial court. South Dakota answers it: twenty days, running from when the reversal is filed in the trial court — not from the appellate decision, and not from remittitur.

If you have just won an appeal reinstating your claim, or lost one that revives a case against you, that is the date to calendar.

Ten days after an ordinary denial is short. Draft the answer before you file the motion.

Default

SDCL § 15-6-55(a):

When a party against whom a judgment for affirmative relief is sought has failed to plead or otherwise defend as provided by this chapter that fact shall be made to appear by affidavit.

Note what the statute does not say. There is no clerk, and no entry. The failure is simply "made to appear by affidavit" — the affidavit is the whole of the entry step.

Section 15-6-55(b)(1) — judgment:

By the Court. In all cases the party entitled to a judgment by default shall apply to the court therefor; but no judgment by default shall be entered against a minor or incompetent person unless represented in the action by a guardian, conservator or guardian ad litem who has appeared therein. If the party against whom judgment by default is sought has appeared in the action, he (or, if appearing by representative, his representative) shall be served with written notice of the application for judgment at least three days prior to the hearing on such application.

Two consequences.

Every default judgment goes to a judge. There is no clerical route on a sum certain, so there is always a hearing.

Three days' notice if you appeared — shorter than the federal seven, but it exists, and it depends entirely on having appeared.

The statute goes on to allow the court to conduct hearings or order references where it needs an accounting, a damages determination, proof of an averment, or an investigation — and to accord a jury trial where a statute requires one.

Answering, or moving

Section 15-6-12(b) carries the defenses that may be raised by motion, on the familiar model. Serving one suspends the answer obligation rather than running alongside it, and consolidation and waiver work as elsewhere: a defense available when you made your first motion and left out of it is generally foreclosed.

How South Dakota compares

A short checklist

1. Calendar 30 days from service of the complaint, and note the obligation is to serve.
2. Do not carry 30 days across. A cross-claim answer and a reply are due in 20.
3. Check whether a statute or rule sets a different period for your kind of case — § 15-6-12 defers to them.
4. A motion under § 15-6-12 suspends the deadline, but a denial leaves only 10 days from notice. Draft the answer first.
5. If a dismissal was reversed on appeal, you have 20 days from when the reversal is filed in the trial court.
6. Raise your defenses together. An available defense omitted from the first motion is generally foreclosed.
7. Appear. Three days' written notice before a default judgment depends on it.
8. Look at the affidavit if a default has been taken. It is the only step standing between the missed deadline and the application for judgment.

Where these rules live

• SDCL § 15-6-4 — Process
• SDCL § 15-6-5 — Service and Filing of Pleadings and Other Papers
• SDCL § 15-6-6 — Computation of time
• SDCL § 15-6-8 — General Rules of Pleading
• SDCL § 15-6-12 — Defenses and Objections
• SDCL § 15-6-15 — Amended and Supplemental Pleadings
• SDCL § 15-6-55 — Default
• SDCL § 15-6-60 — Relief from Judgment or Order

This page explains what the statutes say. It isn't legal advice, and the statutory response periods that displace § 15-6-12 in particular kinds of case are outside what this page covers.