Art. 965.Motion For Judgment On Pleadings

Sometimes a case can be decided from the pleadings alone, without a trial. Article 965 gives any party — plaintiff or defendant — the right to move for judgment on the pleadings once the answer is filed, or, for an incidental demand like a reconventional or third-party claim, once the answer to that demand is filed. The one limit on timing is practical rather than a fixed deadline: the motion has to come early enough that it doesn't delay the trial.

The rule that decides the motion is built into Article 965 itself. Every fact in the adverse party's pleadings counts as true for purposes of the motion. And every fact in the movant's own pleadings that the adverse party hasn't denied — whether expressly or because the law treats silence as an admission — also counts as true. If those undisputed facts, taken together, entitle the movant to judgment as a matter of law, the court can decide the case right there.

Because the motion works entirely off what's already on the record, it's a narrower tool than summary judgment. There's no discovery, no affidavits, no evidence outside the pleadings — just the allegations the parties have already made and the legal conclusions that follow from them.